The Essence of Chaplin: The Style, the Rhythm and the Grace of a Master

Description

Charlie Chaplin's remarkable life and comedic talent have been the focus of countless popular and scholarly studies. In this groundbreaking work, Chaplin's often underrated skills as a film director take center stage. Highlighting the screen icon's significance as a filmmaker, this study focuses on the heart of Chaplin's cinema—his silent works starring his alter-ego, Charlie—and examines both his great silent film features like The Kid, The Gold Rush and Modern Times, and his shorter, earlier films like The Immigrant, The Pawn Shop, The Pilgrim and A Dog's Life. An analysis of the formal properties of Chaplin's filmmaking reveals the merit of his cinema, the depth of its emotion and the extent of its meaning. Chaplin is among the great artists of any medium, in any time, with an ability to touch on very subtle aspects of the human condition. Table of Contents Introduction One: The Biography Two: Charlie’s Role-Playing Three: Chaplin’s Satire Four: Beyond Satire: What Charlie Believes In Five: Chaplin and the Intimacy of the Camera Six: The Concrete and the Suggestive Seven: Chaplin’s Filmmaking Skills Eight: Chaplin’s Sense of Balance Nine: Balance in the Character of Charlie Ten: Charlie and Women Eleven: Charlie, Dogs and Children Twelve: Charlie and Men Thirteen: Chaplin and Rhythm Fourteen: Dance Fifteen: Chaplin’s Music Sixteen: Two Musical Sequences Chapter Notes Bibliography Index