Modern Times (1936)

Modern Times (1936) is Charlie Chaplin's last "silent" film, a satire of the industrial age, and a commentary on the plight of the modern worker. Sound on film was, by this time, widely available, and Chaplin certainly uses sound (if not dialog, per se) in unexpected ways here, but, in total, I think the film is an homage to the short-lived silent moving image art form. The real joy of the film (and indeed I think most silents) is the sheer physicality of the images. Chaplin is an artist, bumbling his way to near-disaster with such precision and effortlessness. Chaplin roller skating blindfolded near a broken balcony is sheer visual poetry. It's a pleasure to watch. It's a ballet.

Too, the film's love story, with its many glowing close-ups of our feisty Heroine, played by Paulette Goddard (Chaplin's maybe-maybe-not paramour), and sweet goofy devotion seems a dead-on nod to a staple of the silent cinema (as I've seen it): the chaste and noble romance. Goddard does literally glow on screen, whether with dirt-smudged face or not, and she and Chaplin have a lovely chemistry. And she's a spitfire, a really great complement to his aw-shucks obliviousness.

Still, Chaplin manages to include plenty social commentary in such a short sweet love story. As a factory worker, he literally becomes caught in the machine, another stunningly choreographed scene (with a special special effect!). As an audience, we follow him as he becomes entangled in one sticky situation after another, accidentally falling into positions of action, or perceived action, all with good humor, all with endearing willingness. While he points to plenty of social ills (factory strikes, hunger, homelessness), he is never a direct social commentator. Chaplin certain is; but the Little Tramp is an accidental social commentator. He is arrested, twice, only because he happens into situations at inopportune times. Modernity is simply one more obstacle between the Little Tramp and Love, and its this heart, I think, that makes these films so enduring.

Other silents on my DVR: The Great Dictator, which should be an interesting complement in terms of content and directon; The Godless Girl (another film which existed in the cross-over from silent films to talkies); and Movie Crazy, starring Harold Lloyd.

Watch this movie on archive.org!