1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,500 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,500 --> 00:00:04,030 Commons license. 3 00:00:04,030 --> 00:00:06,360 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare 4 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:10,730 continue to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,730 --> 00:00:13,340 To make a donation or view additional materials 6 00:00:13,340 --> 00:00:17,238 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare 7 00:00:17,238 --> 00:00:17,863 at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:26,367 --> 00:00:27,450 DAVID THORBURN: All right. 9 00:00:27,450 --> 00:00:28,400 Hello people. 10 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:32,259 Welcome back to the second week of our course. 11 00:00:32,259 --> 00:00:34,560 I'm happy to have this wonderful live audience. 12 00:00:34,560 --> 00:00:36,090 But I also would like very briefly 13 00:00:36,090 --> 00:00:38,750 to address our video audience, who 14 00:00:38,750 --> 00:00:41,680 will no doubt be watching this long after I'm 15 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:45,359 dead on MIT's OpenCourseWare. 16 00:00:45,359 --> 00:00:47,150 So think of this as a voice from the grave. 17 00:00:50,290 --> 00:00:52,117 You and the video audience will sometimes 18 00:00:52,117 --> 00:00:54,200 notice that as I'm lecturing to this lively group, 19 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,790 I will turn this way and look up. 20 00:00:56,790 --> 00:01:00,195 You should realize that what I'm turning toward and looking up 21 00:01:00,195 --> 00:01:05,489 at is this projection screen, which we will show you. 22 00:01:05,489 --> 00:01:07,470 And it sometimes has this outline on it, 23 00:01:07,470 --> 00:01:11,550 which hopefully guides us through each lecture 24 00:01:11,550 --> 00:01:15,020 and sometimes has other information and material on it. 25 00:01:15,020 --> 00:01:17,630 Sometimes it isn't worth shifting over 26 00:01:17,630 --> 00:01:19,960 to show the video audience that image. 27 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:22,475 But that's what I'm looking at when I look so strange. 28 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,260 I'd like to begin today by taking a step back, 29 00:01:28,260 --> 00:01:31,830 by reminding you that the order in which we're 30 00:01:31,830 --> 00:01:34,090 watching the movies in this course 31 00:01:34,090 --> 00:01:35,890 is a little bit arbitrary because I 32 00:01:35,890 --> 00:01:40,900 wanted to use the feature films as the defining date. 33 00:01:40,900 --> 00:01:42,440 And that's the reason that we made 34 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:46,020 Keaton come first because The General is an earlier film. 35 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:50,710 It was almost a decade earlier than Modern Times. 36 00:01:50,710 --> 00:01:54,210 But the truth is Chaplin entered film before Keaton. 37 00:01:54,210 --> 00:01:58,260 And Keaton had certain advantages 38 00:01:58,260 --> 00:02:01,140 by the time he entered the movies, in part because 39 00:02:01,140 --> 00:02:02,930 of Chaplin's example, although also 40 00:02:02,930 --> 00:02:05,990 because of the fairly complicated way 41 00:02:05,990 --> 00:02:10,100 in which silent film had already elaborated itself 42 00:02:10,100 --> 00:02:14,470 after the first 10 years or so of the 20th century. 43 00:02:14,470 --> 00:02:17,150 So I want to take a step back into that early phase, 44 00:02:17,150 --> 00:02:23,550 just before Chaplain becomes a filmmaker really in 1911, 45 00:02:23,550 --> 00:02:27,770 I think is when he joins the Keystone Studios. 46 00:02:27,770 --> 00:02:31,290 Just to remind you of a story that is told systematically 47 00:02:31,290 --> 00:02:33,670 in David Cook's History of Narrative Film, 48 00:02:33,670 --> 00:02:37,280 which is part of our required reading in the course. 49 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:39,750 And I hope you will attend especially 50 00:02:39,750 --> 00:02:43,920 to the details Cook offers about those early years in Hollywood. 51 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:46,080 If you read those chapters from Cook 52 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,140 about the early years of Hollywood 53 00:02:48,140 --> 00:02:51,140 before Chaplin, the movies before Chaplin, 54 00:02:51,140 --> 00:02:54,150 you'll recall that one of the most fundamental things that 55 00:02:54,150 --> 00:02:56,170 happens before Chaplin even appears 56 00:02:56,170 --> 00:02:59,060 is the establishment essentially of the industry I 57 00:02:59,060 --> 00:03:02,090 was describing last time. 58 00:03:02,090 --> 00:03:04,690 The migration to the West Coast is worth mentioning. 59 00:03:04,690 --> 00:03:06,650 Because movies, of course, begin their career 60 00:03:06,650 --> 00:03:09,030 in the United States on the East Coast. 61 00:03:09,030 --> 00:03:13,320 Edison's first movie studio was in East Orange, New Jersey. 62 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:15,210 The Biograph Company was originally 63 00:03:15,210 --> 00:03:17,300 located on the East Coast. 64 00:03:17,300 --> 00:03:21,400 And almost all the original earliest 65 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:24,250 films, even the earliest films that were put into production 66 00:03:24,250 --> 00:03:30,720 and shown commercially, were made on the East Coast. 67 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:32,910 Why did people move to the West Coast? 68 00:03:32,910 --> 00:03:35,140 Why did Hollywood become the sort of center 69 00:03:35,140 --> 00:03:36,650 of the movie industry? 70 00:03:36,650 --> 00:03:37,540 What explains it? 71 00:03:37,540 --> 00:03:39,490 It happens very early. 72 00:03:39,490 --> 00:03:41,520 One might think of it as a very important moment 73 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:43,810 in the history of culture, of popular culture, 74 00:03:43,810 --> 00:03:48,360 because for all the changes that the movie industry has 75 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,860 undergone, Hollywood remains the kind of center 76 00:03:51,860 --> 00:03:55,570 of what is now a kind of global enterprise of movie making. 77 00:03:55,570 --> 00:03:57,720 What helps to explain the move to the West Coast? 78 00:03:57,720 --> 00:03:58,910 Nothing fancy. 79 00:03:58,910 --> 00:03:59,856 In the back, yes. 80 00:03:59,856 --> 00:04:00,980 AUDIENCE: Film year around. 81 00:04:00,980 --> 00:04:02,979 DAVID THORBURN: They could film the year around. 82 00:04:02,979 --> 00:04:05,695 Why is that important, especially in the early days? 83 00:04:05,695 --> 00:04:07,320 AUDIENCE: You can make movies whenever. 84 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,260 You don't have to produce them in the summer. 85 00:04:10,260 --> 00:04:12,960 DAVID THORBURN: Yes. 86 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:15,270 You're not as dependent on the weather. 87 00:04:15,270 --> 00:04:18,399 The Sun always shines in California. 88 00:04:18,399 --> 00:04:21,630 If it's overcast, you can still film. 89 00:04:21,630 --> 00:04:25,190 And there's no snow. 90 00:04:25,190 --> 00:04:28,660 There's virtually no rain. 91 00:04:28,660 --> 00:04:31,250 The weather is very conducive to the making of film. 92 00:04:31,250 --> 00:04:33,620 And especially in this early phase, 93 00:04:33,620 --> 00:04:37,150 when film stock was relatively primitive compared 94 00:04:37,150 --> 00:04:39,060 to the complexity of film stock we 95 00:04:39,060 --> 00:04:42,010 have-- today, the film stock is so subtle 96 00:04:42,010 --> 00:04:43,690 that you can film in the dark. 97 00:04:43,690 --> 00:04:45,070 You can film by fire light. 98 00:04:45,070 --> 00:04:48,900 Even amateur folks owning camcorders 99 00:04:48,900 --> 00:04:51,170 can film virtually in the dark. 100 00:04:51,170 --> 00:04:55,550 They can film by electric light inside a room. 101 00:04:55,550 --> 00:04:59,705 Or tape, they can videotape in that way. 102 00:04:59,705 --> 00:05:01,350 In the earliest days of film, you 103 00:05:01,350 --> 00:05:04,460 needed a tremendous amount of light to expose the film. 104 00:05:04,460 --> 00:05:08,210 And what it meant that you were dependent on the weather. 105 00:05:08,210 --> 00:05:09,557 So that was one major reason. 106 00:05:09,557 --> 00:05:11,640 But there's another one that's even more important 107 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:14,820 in some ways, even though that would seem a sufficient reason 108 00:05:14,820 --> 00:05:17,526 for explaining why the migration to the West Coast occurred. 109 00:05:17,526 --> 00:05:19,150 There's another even more powerful one. 110 00:05:19,150 --> 00:05:21,900 It has to do with the idea of patent warfare. 111 00:05:21,900 --> 00:05:23,210 Yes. 112 00:05:23,210 --> 00:05:24,210 What's your suggestion? 113 00:05:24,210 --> 00:05:25,876 You don't have to give the right answer. 114 00:05:25,876 --> 00:05:26,808 Give a-- 115 00:05:26,808 --> 00:05:28,210 AUDIENCE: Different types of terrains fall into those-- 116 00:05:28,210 --> 00:05:29,410 DAVID THORBURN: Oh, that's also true. 117 00:05:29,410 --> 00:05:29,909 Yes. 118 00:05:29,909 --> 00:05:31,800 The environment of Southern California 119 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:36,270 is particularly conducive to a variety of film projects. 120 00:05:36,270 --> 00:05:37,430 There are mountains nearby. 121 00:05:37,430 --> 00:05:39,190 There's ocean nearby. 122 00:05:39,190 --> 00:05:40,990 There's desert nearby. 123 00:05:40,990 --> 00:05:42,560 And, of course, that's also something 124 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,510 that makes it a uniquely valuable environment. 125 00:05:45,510 --> 00:05:48,020 Maybe not a unique environment, but a particularly 126 00:05:48,020 --> 00:05:49,100 valuable environment. 127 00:05:49,100 --> 00:05:50,210 And that's a good answer. 128 00:05:50,210 --> 00:05:51,376 And you're right about that. 129 00:05:51,376 --> 00:05:52,570 But there's something else. 130 00:05:52,570 --> 00:05:56,680 And it has to do with conditions in the East and Thomas Edison. 131 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:00,600 Remember, Edison in a certain way 132 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:03,410 wanted to lay claim to virtually every invention 133 00:06:03,410 --> 00:06:05,050 in the early part of the 20th century. 134 00:06:05,050 --> 00:06:06,580 And he was primed to do so. 135 00:06:06,580 --> 00:06:09,150 He was already recognized as a great genius, 136 00:06:09,150 --> 00:06:14,520 as the premier entrepreneurial inventor of his era. 137 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:16,920 And he immediately, as he had done 138 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:18,550 with other projects of his, began 139 00:06:18,550 --> 00:06:21,980 to take out patents to try to control 140 00:06:21,980 --> 00:06:23,530 the use of movie technology. 141 00:06:23,530 --> 00:06:26,640 He wanted to become the Edison monopoly. 142 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:31,100 He was fantasizing that he would control the movie-- whatever 143 00:06:31,100 --> 00:06:34,030 the movie industry would become, Edison's company 144 00:06:34,030 --> 00:06:36,390 fantasized it was going to take control of that. 145 00:06:36,390 --> 00:06:41,200 And, in fact, the Edison Company hired law enforcement officers 146 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:42,830 and, according to some historians, 147 00:06:42,830 --> 00:06:48,740 even in some places hired goons, thugs, to go and break up 148 00:06:48,740 --> 00:06:54,920 the sets and the shooting of rival producers who were, 149 00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:58,190 according to Edison, infringing on Edison copyrights. 150 00:06:58,190 --> 00:07:00,990 So the other reason-- another reason for the move to the West 151 00:07:00,990 --> 00:07:05,910 Coast was a lot of the entrepreneurial movie makers 152 00:07:05,910 --> 00:07:08,010 wanted to get free of the patent police. 153 00:07:08,010 --> 00:07:11,140 They wanted to get out from under the scrutiny of Edison 154 00:07:11,140 --> 00:07:13,204 and his police. 155 00:07:13,204 --> 00:07:15,620 And by running to the West Coast, they were able to do so. 156 00:07:15,620 --> 00:07:19,270 And, in fact, Edison was unsuccessful in controlling 157 00:07:19,270 --> 00:07:22,830 the technology, as Cook and other historians 158 00:07:22,830 --> 00:07:23,881 have made clear to us. 159 00:07:23,881 --> 00:07:26,130 So the move to the West Coast is a very important one. 160 00:07:26,130 --> 00:07:30,140 And I will return to the cultural, the historical, 161 00:07:30,140 --> 00:07:34,460 and ideological or intellectual implications 162 00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:38,890 of that move to the West Coast in a few lectures, 163 00:07:38,890 --> 00:07:42,070 maybe next week if I get the opportunity. 164 00:07:42,070 --> 00:07:43,790 Because I want to talk a little bit more 165 00:07:43,790 --> 00:07:46,770 about what it meant for American movies 166 00:07:46,770 --> 00:07:50,200 that film was made on the farthest western verge 167 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:53,530 of the society, away from cultural centers, 168 00:07:53,530 --> 00:07:56,540 unlike the way in which movies developed in Europe. 169 00:07:56,540 --> 00:07:59,350 And I'll talk about that implication a bit later. 170 00:07:59,350 --> 00:08:03,320 Probably next week, when we talk about the great German silent 171 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:06,030 film that concludes our segment on silent films. 172 00:08:10,050 --> 00:08:14,490 So even before Chaplin enters, the rudiments-- or more 173 00:08:14,490 --> 00:08:17,880 than the rudiments, the basic system of mass production, 174 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:22,390 of studio-based production, of manufacture 175 00:08:22,390 --> 00:08:24,720 of the films in one place and then 176 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:29,270 the distribution system that developed in which theaters 177 00:08:29,270 --> 00:08:34,830 essentially rented or purchased films from the producers 178 00:08:34,830 --> 00:08:36,140 was already in place. 179 00:08:36,140 --> 00:08:38,880 And, of course, the two great figures here 180 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:43,191 is Thomas Ince-- and Cook writes very well about Ince 181 00:08:43,191 --> 00:08:44,690 and his contribution to the movies-- 182 00:08:44,690 --> 00:08:48,210 probably the person to whom we could attribute the invention 183 00:08:48,210 --> 00:08:49,910 of the movie studio, I suppose. 184 00:08:49,910 --> 00:08:53,940 And Mack Sennett, who developed the Keystone Studios, 185 00:08:53,940 --> 00:08:57,360 out of which so many important early comedies emerged 186 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,490 and the studio which Chaplin joined 187 00:09:01,490 --> 00:09:04,740 when he came to the United States 188 00:09:04,740 --> 00:09:12,590 to become a movie maker in, I think, 1911 or 1912. 189 00:09:12,590 --> 00:09:15,780 So Ince and Mack Sennett are important. 190 00:09:15,780 --> 00:09:19,530 And one might say one further thing about this moment. 191 00:09:19,530 --> 00:09:22,180 As you know if you've read Cook, Sennett 192 00:09:22,180 --> 00:09:24,980 created what came to be called the Keystone Studios. 193 00:09:24,980 --> 00:09:28,489 And Keystone Studios were named, I think-- or maybe 194 00:09:28,489 --> 00:09:29,280 it was the reverse. 195 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:33,791 I'm not sure-- was associated with their prime product 196 00:09:33,791 --> 00:09:34,540 in the early days. 197 00:09:34,540 --> 00:09:37,270 And they were called the Keystone Kops Komedies. 198 00:09:37,270 --> 00:09:39,730 We're going to show you a fragment of those in a moment. 199 00:09:39,730 --> 00:09:44,440 They were frenzied action, frenzied physical action. 200 00:09:44,440 --> 00:09:45,600 So this is the era. 201 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:49,800 This is the moment, the period in the first 10 years 202 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:51,910 of the movie industry in the United States, 203 00:09:51,910 --> 00:09:59,140 when the basic system is being, by trial and error, worked out. 204 00:09:59,140 --> 00:10:01,180 And by the time Chaplin comes to join 205 00:10:01,180 --> 00:10:04,350 the system after the first decade or so 206 00:10:04,350 --> 00:10:07,240 of the 20th century, the system essentially is in place. 207 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:10,180 There are already a number of famous performers, 208 00:10:10,180 --> 00:10:13,650 both in comedy and in drama. 209 00:10:13,650 --> 00:10:17,970 There are emerging certain particular studios 210 00:10:17,970 --> 00:10:20,830 who have refined the mass production 211 00:10:20,830 --> 00:10:24,980 technique to produce their movies on a regular basis. 212 00:10:24,980 --> 00:10:28,490 So an expanding market for the movies 213 00:10:28,490 --> 00:10:32,400 is being met by a systematic manufacturing process 214 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:37,550 that Ince and Sennett begin to work out 215 00:10:37,550 --> 00:10:41,900 in systematic and long-lasting ways. 216 00:10:41,900 --> 00:10:43,830 In ways that in a certain sense continue 217 00:10:43,830 --> 00:10:46,290 in residual form, in vestigial form, 218 00:10:46,290 --> 00:10:49,820 to dominate the production of movies even today. 219 00:10:49,820 --> 00:10:52,860 When we were talking about the primitive and the simplicity 220 00:10:52,860 --> 00:10:55,620 of early film, there was one film I had on the stocks 221 00:10:55,620 --> 00:10:57,417 we didn't have time to show you last week. 222 00:10:57,417 --> 00:10:59,000 And I thought I would show this to you 223 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:03,160 as a way of illustrating again how relatively simple 224 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:04,064 the early films are. 225 00:11:04,064 --> 00:11:04,730 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 226 00:11:04,730 --> 00:11:07,505 See how influential that first sneeze was. 227 00:11:10,674 --> 00:11:12,590 The name of this film is The Whole Dam Family. 228 00:11:12,590 --> 00:11:13,320 There's Mr. Dam. 229 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:15,070 There Mrs. Helen Dam. 230 00:11:15,070 --> 00:11:17,992 [MUSIC PLAYING] 231 00:11:24,810 --> 00:11:26,395 There's their son, Jimmy Dam. 232 00:11:31,670 --> 00:11:33,150 The simplicity of these movements 233 00:11:33,150 --> 00:11:34,691 are part of what's interesting to us. 234 00:11:34,691 --> 00:11:37,130 I mean this is still an era in which people are just 235 00:11:37,130 --> 00:11:42,100 fascinated by the idea that movies capture movies. 236 00:11:42,100 --> 00:11:43,670 But what's the joke here? 237 00:11:43,670 --> 00:11:46,995 The joke is embedded I suppose in the title, The Whole Dam 238 00:11:46,995 --> 00:11:47,495 Family. 239 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:51,260 There's Miss. 240 00:11:51,260 --> 00:11:52,355 I.P. Dam. 241 00:11:54,990 --> 00:11:56,090 There's Baby Dam. 242 00:12:00,290 --> 00:12:01,060 What an actor. 243 00:12:06,892 --> 00:12:10,640 You see how it's framed as if it's a painting, how 244 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,130 stationary the camera is. 245 00:12:12,130 --> 00:12:14,220 There's the Dam Cook. 246 00:12:14,220 --> 00:12:16,310 What's the joke here? 247 00:12:16,310 --> 00:12:19,110 Finally, we're going to come to the Dam Dog. 248 00:12:19,110 --> 00:12:22,060 What's going on here? 249 00:12:22,060 --> 00:12:23,830 It's kind of risque. 250 00:12:23,830 --> 00:12:25,980 Remember, we're talking about late Victorian, 251 00:12:25,980 --> 00:12:27,170 post-Victorian era. 252 00:12:27,170 --> 00:12:29,280 What's the joke here? 253 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:31,864 It's the play on the word "damn." 254 00:12:31,864 --> 00:12:33,280 It doesn't strike you as shocking. 255 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:38,810 But, in fact, if you said, damn you in 1890 or in 1900 256 00:12:38,810 --> 00:12:41,060 in certain quarters, people stepped back and said, 257 00:12:41,060 --> 00:12:41,910 oh, my goodness. 258 00:12:41,910 --> 00:12:43,665 There's a kind of semi-vulgarity there. 259 00:12:43,665 --> 00:12:47,570 In other words, it's not an accident 260 00:12:47,570 --> 00:12:52,800 that this is not the Thorburn family or the Smith family. 261 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:54,890 It's significant that it's the Dam family. 262 00:12:54,890 --> 00:12:55,390 Why? 263 00:12:55,390 --> 00:12:56,620 Because they want to make a joke. 264 00:12:56,620 --> 00:12:57,745 What's wrong with the joke? 265 00:12:57,745 --> 00:13:00,620 Why is it a stupid joke for a movie? 266 00:13:00,620 --> 00:13:02,870 Because it's not a visual joke. 267 00:13:02,870 --> 00:13:04,160 What does it depend on it? 268 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:06,240 It depends on language. 269 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:09,650 In other words, it's almost as if the whole point of this film 270 00:13:09,650 --> 00:13:12,150 depends on a joke that depends not on anything that you 271 00:13:12,150 --> 00:13:14,190 can experience visually, but that 272 00:13:14,190 --> 00:13:17,100 is resident in a verbal trick. 273 00:13:17,100 --> 00:13:19,130 And it's a trivial joke. 274 00:13:19,130 --> 00:13:22,380 It's not much of a joke, but the film depends upon it. 275 00:13:22,380 --> 00:13:26,570 And it's evidence in a very modest, but at the same time 276 00:13:26,570 --> 00:13:33,280 dramatic and obvious way of this process whereby 277 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,770 the new medium, this new visual medium, 278 00:13:35,770 --> 00:13:40,190 has to emerge out of media, some of which are not visual at all, 279 00:13:40,190 --> 00:13:40,900 but are verbal. 280 00:13:40,900 --> 00:13:44,880 And it's as if early filmmakers haven't yet learned fully 281 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:49,240 how to exploit the qualities of the medium they're working in. 282 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,660 So it's a verbal joke, rather than a visual joke. 283 00:13:55,580 --> 00:13:57,910 Much more powerful and much more successful 284 00:13:57,910 --> 00:14:00,480 were the Keystone Kops Komedies themselves. 285 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,270 And we have one example of that to show you. 286 00:14:03,270 --> 00:14:05,790 I'm not sure that this is a characteristic example. 287 00:14:05,790 --> 00:14:08,260 But it's close enough to give you 288 00:14:08,260 --> 00:14:11,030 as a sort of sense of what the Keystone Komedies were 289 00:14:11,030 --> 00:14:14,861 like before Chaplin entered the game. 290 00:14:14,861 --> 00:14:16,304 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 291 00:14:16,304 --> 00:14:18,228 [MUSIC PLAYING] 292 00:14:27,390 --> 00:14:29,480 The essential joke of the Keystone Kops 293 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,210 Komedies-- I don't even know how many there were, 294 00:14:32,210 --> 00:14:33,210 perhaps hundreds. 295 00:14:33,210 --> 00:14:35,140 There were certainly dozens and dozens. 296 00:14:35,140 --> 00:14:38,670 They were immensely popular early short films. 297 00:14:38,670 --> 00:14:41,870 Some film scholars have speculated 298 00:14:41,870 --> 00:14:43,750 that one reason for their popularity 299 00:14:43,750 --> 00:14:45,250 was that they made fun of policemen. 300 00:14:45,250 --> 00:14:51,410 That was an implicit sort of mildly anarchic impulse 301 00:14:51,410 --> 00:14:53,940 in these early comedies because authority figures, 302 00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:55,900 people in uniform, were being shown 303 00:14:55,900 --> 00:14:59,210 to be clownish in some way. 304 00:14:59,210 --> 00:15:00,810 The primary element, of course, is 305 00:15:00,810 --> 00:15:03,910 to find ways to exploit the movies' capacity 306 00:15:03,910 --> 00:15:04,640 to show motion. 307 00:15:14,330 --> 00:15:19,830 And one reason I want you to see this relatively crude example 308 00:15:19,830 --> 00:15:23,090 is that there's a certain sense in which 309 00:15:23,090 --> 00:15:26,850 the short film that you saw last week from Keaton, the film 310 00:15:26,850 --> 00:15:31,220 Cops, is a sort of reprise of this tradition of movie making. 311 00:15:31,220 --> 00:15:35,910 Although you can see how much more coherent and character 312 00:15:35,910 --> 00:15:38,970 oriented Keaton's short film was, 313 00:15:38,970 --> 00:15:42,760 but the way in which especially the cops are mocked and shown 314 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:45,320 to be completely clownish figures. 315 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:49,620 Almost all of the Keystone Kops Komedies to my knowledge, 316 00:15:49,620 --> 00:15:53,090 involved incompetent policeman, who 317 00:15:53,090 --> 00:15:57,350 engaged in mad active chases, which often ended badly 318 00:15:57,350 --> 00:15:58,570 for the policeman. 319 00:15:58,570 --> 00:16:01,090 Sometimes they would end up all flying 320 00:16:01,090 --> 00:16:06,223 into a river, or an ocean, or some other natural disaster. 321 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:19,450 And I think you can also see-- that was actually 322 00:16:19,450 --> 00:16:22,670 a very dramatic effect for an early film. 323 00:16:22,670 --> 00:16:24,810 So there's an awful lot about this 324 00:16:24,810 --> 00:16:26,650 that would have interested early-- 325 00:16:26,650 --> 00:16:28,980 seeing that car turn over, some people in the audience 326 00:16:28,980 --> 00:16:32,730 might never have seen that in the movies before. 327 00:16:32,730 --> 00:16:35,240 And one could say that these films in a certain way 328 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:41,450 anticipate a great deal of the ridiculous action adventure 329 00:16:41,450 --> 00:16:43,335 activity that we see in films even today. 330 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:49,060 But this is typical of those early films, where they'll 331 00:16:49,060 --> 00:16:51,640 make incredibly implausible jokes just for the sake 332 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:53,950 of making the joke. 333 00:16:53,950 --> 00:16:57,490 And I'm not sure-- all right, a Mack Sennett comedy. 334 00:16:57,490 --> 00:16:58,990 This is the kind of comedy then that 335 00:16:58,990 --> 00:17:03,130 was being made by the Sennett Studio before Chaplain arrived. 336 00:17:03,130 --> 00:17:07,859 They were also certain figures-- Fatty Arbuckle, 337 00:17:07,859 --> 00:17:11,610 the fat comedian who worked with Buster Keaton, is an example. 338 00:17:11,610 --> 00:17:15,440 Who had already begun to establish comic personae, 339 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,900 something like the persona that Chaplin and Keaton created. 340 00:17:18,900 --> 00:17:21,480 So they were not the first to do this. 341 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,869 So there was a subtler and already somewhat more 342 00:17:24,869 --> 00:17:26,680 character-oriented comedy beginning 343 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,920 to emerge before Chaplin appears. 344 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,120 But Chaplin's entry into American movies 345 00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:34,950 is also a turning point, a fundamental turning point, 346 00:17:34,950 --> 00:17:39,080 as many scholars have recognized. 347 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:40,920 And it's a turning point primarily 348 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,900 because what Chaplin introduces-- I mean 349 00:17:44,900 --> 00:17:47,390 introduces many, many things to comedy. 350 00:17:47,390 --> 00:17:51,210 But he introduces one thing especially-- well, 351 00:17:51,210 --> 00:17:52,520 two things especially. 352 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:53,990 The first thing that he introduces 353 00:17:53,990 --> 00:17:57,070 is what we might call the principal of the slow down. 354 00:17:57,070 --> 00:18:00,550 Instead of frenzied motion all the time in Chaplin comedies, 355 00:18:00,550 --> 00:18:02,094 there are moments of quiet. 356 00:18:02,094 --> 00:18:03,760 And in these moments of quiet-- and this 357 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:05,930 is why they're important-- what begins to happen 358 00:18:05,930 --> 00:18:09,850 is an attention is thrown away from violent, frenzied physical 359 00:18:09,850 --> 00:18:12,040 action toward character. 360 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,455 What Chaplin introduces into movies 361 00:18:15,455 --> 00:18:19,060 is a somewhat more systematic and serious interesting 362 00:18:19,060 --> 00:18:21,520 character than had ever occurred before. 363 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:23,620 And what follows from that introduction, 364 00:18:23,620 --> 00:18:25,670 from slowing down the action, creating 365 00:18:25,670 --> 00:18:28,940 moments of human interaction in which the interest is 366 00:18:28,940 --> 00:18:31,620 essentially psychological and individual, 367 00:18:31,620 --> 00:18:35,030 rather than an interest simply in frenzied motion and jokes, 368 00:18:35,030 --> 00:18:38,500 or frenzied motion and suspense, which 369 00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:41,520 is what you would get from a Griffith melodrama, what you're 370 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,680 getting is-- so this introduces several things. 371 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:46,670 First of all, it introduces a tonal variation. 372 00:18:46,670 --> 00:18:48,710 It means that in the middle of comedies, 373 00:18:48,710 --> 00:18:50,500 there could be quiet, serious moments. 374 00:18:50,500 --> 00:18:53,460 And, in fact, it becomes the hallmark of Chaplin's comedy 375 00:18:53,460 --> 00:18:55,480 that it really is often not funny 376 00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:57,920 or at least that it's based on unfunny materials. 377 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:00,280 And that there are poignant and moving moments. 378 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:04,130 It's as if Chaplin combines comic and melodramatic 379 00:19:04,130 --> 00:19:07,060 elements, especially in his best work. 380 00:19:07,060 --> 00:19:09,340 I don't mean that when he came into the films 381 00:19:09,340 --> 00:19:10,550 he began to do this. 382 00:19:10,550 --> 00:19:13,500 In fact, he discovered how to do this 383 00:19:13,500 --> 00:19:15,420 in the course of his career, about which I 384 00:19:15,420 --> 00:19:16,790 will speak in a moment. 385 00:19:16,790 --> 00:19:21,230 So Chaplin brings a new interest in character 386 00:19:21,230 --> 00:19:22,690 and in psychological nuance. 387 00:19:22,690 --> 00:19:27,390 And, because of that introduces tonal variation, 388 00:19:27,390 --> 00:19:29,060 a complexity of tone. 389 00:19:29,060 --> 00:19:32,320 We think of the Tramp figure as indelible 390 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,030 and unchanging in a certain way. 391 00:19:35,030 --> 00:19:37,440 His costume always the same, his face always the same, 392 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:40,040 the kinds of problems he gets into always similar. 393 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:41,420 And that's partly true. 394 00:19:41,420 --> 00:19:47,430 But the Tramp was not born fully dressed in Chaplin's brain. 395 00:19:47,430 --> 00:19:50,650 He evolved the Champ over a series 396 00:19:50,650 --> 00:19:54,950 of short films in the period from 1911 397 00:19:54,950 --> 00:19:58,310 through about 1913 or '14. 398 00:19:58,310 --> 00:20:00,907 And one way I can dramatize this for you 399 00:20:00,907 --> 00:20:03,240 is to show you how Charlie looked in the very first film 400 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:04,882 he appeared in. 401 00:20:04,882 --> 00:20:06,340 He was not a director in this film. 402 00:20:06,340 --> 00:20:07,520 He was just an actor. 403 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:08,940 And he was a walk-on actor. 404 00:20:08,940 --> 00:20:10,500 He was not the star. 405 00:20:10,500 --> 00:20:12,460 The camera had an immediate affinity for him. 406 00:20:12,460 --> 00:20:14,002 And after people saw this film-- this 407 00:20:14,002 --> 00:20:15,376 is the first film he appeared in. 408 00:20:15,376 --> 00:20:17,020 This is a still from a film called 409 00:20:17,020 --> 00:20:19,200 Kid Auto Races at Venice. 410 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,790 It's a kind of documentary about soapbox racing. 411 00:20:22,790 --> 00:20:26,750 And the Chaplain character had just been hired by Mack Sennett 412 00:20:26,750 --> 00:20:28,760 to join the Keystone Studios. 413 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:30,540 And he made an appearance in the film. 414 00:20:30,540 --> 00:20:32,100 He really didn't have anything to do. 415 00:20:32,100 --> 00:20:35,309 But his appearance in the film caused all kinds of interest 416 00:20:35,309 --> 00:20:35,975 in the audience. 417 00:20:35,975 --> 00:20:38,100 The audience wanted to know who that character was, 418 00:20:38,100 --> 00:20:41,590 why he was so interesting, and what was interesting about him. 419 00:20:41,590 --> 00:20:46,290 You can see the beginnings of the Tramp costume there, 420 00:20:46,290 --> 00:20:48,820 but not the complete Tramp. 421 00:20:48,820 --> 00:20:54,060 Here's another early version of Chaplin, wearing a long coat 422 00:20:54,060 --> 00:20:56,020 and not looking very nice. 423 00:20:59,450 --> 00:21:01,590 Charlie is supposed to be drunk in this picture. 424 00:21:01,590 --> 00:21:04,740 That's one reason he looks nasty. 425 00:21:04,740 --> 00:21:06,990 It's in a film called Mabel's Married Life. 426 00:21:06,990 --> 00:21:11,400 And he's actually in conversation 427 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,410 with a dummy in this sequence. 428 00:21:14,410 --> 00:21:18,040 But you can see here that the long coat violates 429 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:19,800 our idea of who the Tramp was. 430 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:25,450 So it took awhile before the Chaplain persona completely 431 00:21:25,450 --> 00:21:25,950 emerged. 432 00:21:25,950 --> 00:21:29,210 And it was partly a matter of trial and error, 433 00:21:29,210 --> 00:21:32,440 although very quick trial and error. 434 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:34,460 I want to say a word about Chaplin's career, 435 00:21:34,460 --> 00:21:39,460 to give you a fuller sense of how swiftly he became an icon 436 00:21:39,460 --> 00:21:41,830 and how significant his example is 437 00:21:41,830 --> 00:21:44,650 for our understanding of the power of movies. 438 00:21:44,650 --> 00:21:50,570 Chaplain's dates are 1889 to 1977. 439 00:21:50,570 --> 00:21:52,360 He was born in England. 440 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,090 And his early childhood is actually 441 00:21:54,090 --> 00:21:57,520 the stuff of Dickensian melodrama, 442 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:02,360 both terms I choose with some intentionality 443 00:22:02,360 --> 00:22:08,150 because there are parallels between Charlie Chaplin's 444 00:22:08,150 --> 00:22:12,030 early life and the victimization that Dickens 445 00:22:12,030 --> 00:22:16,680 dramatizes so powerfully in many of his famous novels. 446 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,570 And there are parallels between Dickens' own childhood 447 00:22:19,570 --> 00:22:21,300 and Chaplain's childhood. 448 00:22:21,300 --> 00:22:23,700 Dickens, the great 19th century novelist, 449 00:22:23,700 --> 00:22:27,160 who, like Chaplin, was interested in victims, 450 00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,200 laid emphasis on the problems of vulnerable people, 451 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,090 of women, of children, who wrote variations 452 00:22:34,090 --> 00:22:36,960 on what we might call the mortgage melodrama all 453 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:38,020 his career. 454 00:22:38,020 --> 00:22:40,730 His greatest works could be said to be forms of melodrama. 455 00:22:40,730 --> 00:22:43,430 I'm talking about Charles Dickens, the great 19th century 456 00:22:43,430 --> 00:22:44,470 English novelist. 457 00:22:44,470 --> 00:22:47,240 And Chaplin grew up in an environment that was steeped, 458 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,100 not only in Dickens, but in the traditions of stage 459 00:22:50,100 --> 00:22:53,090 and novelistic melodrama that permeated 460 00:22:53,090 --> 00:22:58,220 European culture and especially English culture of this time. 461 00:22:58,220 --> 00:23:01,060 But his life was a very difficult one in some ways 462 00:23:01,060 --> 00:23:02,770 as well. 463 00:23:02,770 --> 00:23:05,000 His father died when he was eight. 464 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:09,340 His mother was in and out of the institutions all of her life. 465 00:23:09,340 --> 00:23:11,650 There were periods in Chaplin's life, when he was just 466 00:23:11,650 --> 00:23:14,610 a little child, when he was literally completely abandoned. 467 00:23:14,610 --> 00:23:18,249 And he and his older brother spent time living in doorways 468 00:23:18,249 --> 00:23:19,290 on the streets of London. 469 00:23:19,290 --> 00:23:22,120 He was literally a homeless urchin as a child. 470 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:26,110 He began to act on the stage from the age of seven 471 00:23:26,110 --> 00:23:28,190 and almost immediately was recognized 472 00:23:28,190 --> 00:23:31,530 as having astonishing gifts. 473 00:23:31,530 --> 00:23:37,070 He worked from 1906 through 1913 for a theatrical company 474 00:23:37,070 --> 00:23:40,040 in England called the Karno Company, K-A-R-N-O. 475 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:46,300 And it was a company that put on a certain kind of theatrical 476 00:23:46,300 --> 00:23:48,780 anthology, in which there would be skits, 477 00:23:48,780 --> 00:23:51,240 comic skits and serious skits acted out. 478 00:23:51,240 --> 00:23:56,090 Sometimes when the skits were over, 479 00:23:56,090 --> 00:24:00,680 there would be song and dance numbers, sometimes just 480 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:01,710 straight singing. 481 00:24:01,710 --> 00:24:05,360 A kind of British variety show, influenced especially 482 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:07,660 by the traditions of the British musical. 483 00:24:07,660 --> 00:24:10,040 And the Karno Company was a traveling company. 484 00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:11,910 And first, Chaplain worked with the company 485 00:24:11,910 --> 00:24:13,680 all around the British Isles. 486 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,330 And then, in I think 1909 or 1910, 487 00:24:16,330 --> 00:24:18,290 the Karno Company made a triumphant tour 488 00:24:18,290 --> 00:24:19,470 of the United States. 489 00:24:19,470 --> 00:24:22,880 By this time, Chaplin was one of the leading actors in this. 490 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,910 One of the great features of the Karno Company performances 491 00:24:26,910 --> 00:24:28,830 were pantomime performances. 492 00:24:28,830 --> 00:24:33,570 And Chaplin was a particularly brilliant pantomimist. 493 00:24:33,570 --> 00:24:35,890 So he had a very significant career. 494 00:24:35,890 --> 00:24:38,500 He was already a successful performer 495 00:24:38,500 --> 00:24:41,110 on the stage in the Karno Company 496 00:24:41,110 --> 00:24:45,360 and drew on traditions of performance. 497 00:24:45,360 --> 00:24:47,630 Chaplin's father was a popular singer. 498 00:24:47,630 --> 00:24:50,680 His songs were published and he sang in the musicals 499 00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,110 for a certain period. 500 00:24:53,110 --> 00:24:55,400 And Chaplin's mother had visions or fantasies 501 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,370 of being a performer herself and used to perform privately 502 00:24:58,370 --> 00:24:59,090 to Charlie. 503 00:24:59,090 --> 00:25:01,860 So Charlie was steeped in performance, 504 00:25:01,860 --> 00:25:02,880 steeped in theater. 505 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,050 And as a young boy, from the age of seven 506 00:25:05,050 --> 00:25:07,220 on, was already sort of acting on stage. 507 00:25:07,220 --> 00:25:11,080 Almost continuously after the age of eight or nine, 508 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:12,350 made his living as an actor. 509 00:25:12,350 --> 00:25:16,597 So as a relatively young man, he made a trip 510 00:25:16,597 --> 00:25:18,430 to the United States with the Karno Company. 511 00:25:18,430 --> 00:25:21,610 The Karno Company toured various cities in the United States, 512 00:25:21,610 --> 00:25:23,150 was a great success. 513 00:25:23,150 --> 00:25:25,360 A second tour almost immediately followed, 514 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:27,060 I think within six months. 515 00:25:27,060 --> 00:25:29,330 And on that second tour, Mack Sennett 516 00:25:29,330 --> 00:25:32,530 saw Chaplain perform and hired him away 517 00:25:32,530 --> 00:25:34,770 from the Karno Company. 518 00:25:34,770 --> 00:25:37,640 Saw that Chaplin had certain gifts as a performer that 519 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,349 would work in the infant medium of the movies 520 00:25:40,349 --> 00:25:41,140 and hired him away. 521 00:25:41,140 --> 00:25:44,140 And it was an inspired decision. 522 00:25:44,140 --> 00:25:48,540 When Chaplain first joined the Keystone Studios in '19-- 523 00:25:48,540 --> 00:25:49,690 I think it's 1911. 524 00:25:49,690 --> 00:25:51,110 The date is in Cook. 525 00:25:51,110 --> 00:25:51,940 So be careful. 526 00:25:51,940 --> 00:25:54,900 My date may be a year or two off. 527 00:25:54,900 --> 00:25:57,610 But around 1911, he joins the Karno Company. 528 00:25:57,610 --> 00:25:59,950 His first few films, his first three or four films, 529 00:25:59,950 --> 00:26:01,470 he's just a performer in. 530 00:26:01,470 --> 00:26:04,200 But he has an immediate affinity for the camera as well. 531 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,170 And within half a dozen films, he's 532 00:26:06,170 --> 00:26:08,270 already beginning to direct as well as to act. 533 00:26:08,270 --> 00:26:13,100 And within a relatively short time, 534 00:26:13,100 --> 00:26:17,450 he gets to be in control of every aspect 535 00:26:17,450 --> 00:26:18,650 of the making of his films. 536 00:26:18,650 --> 00:26:22,210 We can get some sense of how richly 537 00:26:22,210 --> 00:26:24,640 and symbiotically the audience reacted 538 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:29,410 to the character of the Tramp that Chaplin created 539 00:26:29,410 --> 00:26:35,420 by talking in monetary terms about the development 540 00:26:35,420 --> 00:26:37,920 of his career, about the progress of his career. 541 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:43,400 He officially joined the Keystone Company in 1914. 542 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,430 He was hired in 1911 and 1912, came over to the United States. 543 00:26:46,430 --> 00:26:49,350 And from 1914 and 1915, just that 544 00:26:49,350 --> 00:26:51,980 one year, he worked for the Keystone Company 545 00:26:51,980 --> 00:26:57,250 and made 35 films in that one-year period. 546 00:26:57,250 --> 00:27:02,570 He received what was then a princely salary of $150 a week. 547 00:27:02,570 --> 00:27:07,670 The final films of those 35, the last 15 or 20 or so of them, 548 00:27:07,670 --> 00:27:09,390 featured the Tramp figure, who had now 549 00:27:09,390 --> 00:27:12,200 been fully elaborated in various adventures that 550 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,500 became characteristic of Chaplin's vision of the Tramp. 551 00:27:15,500 --> 00:27:17,300 And they were unbelievably popular, 552 00:27:17,300 --> 00:27:19,400 by far the most popular shorts that 553 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,190 had ever been sent out of any movie production company. 554 00:27:23,190 --> 00:27:25,320 And they made Chaplain a household name, 555 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:27,680 first in the United States, and then fairly 556 00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,070 quickly all over the world. 557 00:27:30,070 --> 00:27:33,810 So successful were those early films that in 1915 he was hired 558 00:27:33,810 --> 00:27:38,700 away by another company, the Essanay Company, E-S-S-A-N-A-Y. 559 00:27:38,700 --> 00:27:42,550 And for another year 1915, 1916, he worked just for the Essanay 560 00:27:42,550 --> 00:27:43,370 Company. 561 00:27:43,370 --> 00:27:48,270 But his salary went up from $150 a week to $1,250 562 00:27:48,270 --> 00:27:49,920 a week in one year. 563 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,440 And that's a gigantic-- more than a thousand dollars 564 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:56,800 a week in 1915 is an unbelievable fortune, 565 00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:58,520 of course. 566 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,900 He makes only 14 films in that period. 567 00:28:00,900 --> 00:28:02,820 So he goes from making 35 films in a year 568 00:28:02,820 --> 00:28:04,720 to making only 14 films. 569 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:06,860 And those 14 films are more highly finished. 570 00:28:06,860 --> 00:28:08,190 He spends more time with them. 571 00:28:08,190 --> 00:28:11,820 We can see in this period, we can see Chaplain learning. 572 00:28:11,820 --> 00:28:16,000 We can see Chaplin enacting in small the Fred Ott principle. 573 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,190 We could see Chaplin enacting in small the principal 574 00:28:18,190 --> 00:28:19,731 I talked about last week, in which we 575 00:28:19,731 --> 00:28:24,950 see him learning to develop performance styles that 576 00:28:24,950 --> 00:28:29,180 are appropriate to the camera, appropriate to cinematic 577 00:28:29,180 --> 00:28:34,420 experience, developing techniques as a director 578 00:28:34,420 --> 00:28:39,670 to emphasize certain aspects of the Tramp's character, 579 00:28:39,670 --> 00:28:43,070 experimenting with tonal variation in his films, 580 00:28:43,070 --> 00:28:49,660 experimenting with various kinds of comic devices, some of which 581 00:28:49,660 --> 00:28:53,310 he imports from his performances with the Karno Company 582 00:28:53,310 --> 00:28:58,932 and many of which he refines and changes 583 00:28:58,932 --> 00:29:00,390 because he's working in the movies. 584 00:29:00,390 --> 00:29:04,190 One famous example of this migration from stage to screen 585 00:29:04,190 --> 00:29:07,520 is a bit that Chaplain was especially famous for when he 586 00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:08,900 worked for the Karno Company. 587 00:29:08,900 --> 00:29:10,950 He did a bit them, a pantomime, called 588 00:29:10,950 --> 00:29:14,380 the Inebriate Swell, the inebriated-- 589 00:29:14,380 --> 00:29:18,805 the drunk aristocrat. 590 00:29:18,805 --> 00:29:21,370 That's what a swell is, a rich aristocrat, 591 00:29:21,370 --> 00:29:24,810 a man about town, the inebriated-- the drunken 592 00:29:24,810 --> 00:29:26,612 aristocrat. 593 00:29:26,612 --> 00:29:28,320 And it was one of the most popular pieces 594 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,380 that he performed on stage for the Karno Company. 595 00:29:31,380 --> 00:29:33,970 He remade a version of it, a very famous film. 596 00:29:33,970 --> 00:29:37,650 It's one of the very few short Chaplins where Chaplin doesn't 597 00:29:37,650 --> 00:29:40,180 play the Tramp, where he's dressed up in a tuxedo 598 00:29:40,180 --> 00:29:42,620 and he plays the inebriated swell. 599 00:29:42,620 --> 00:29:44,800 And it's a film called One A.M. 600 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:48,620 And in the entire film, Chaplin plays a man who is drunk 601 00:29:48,620 --> 00:29:52,190 and who keeps encountering objects that misunderstands. 602 00:29:52,190 --> 00:29:55,794 So as an example, he comes across a clothes tree 603 00:29:55,794 --> 00:29:56,335 in his house. 604 00:29:56,335 --> 00:29:58,130 And instead of hanging his clothes on it, 605 00:29:58,130 --> 00:30:01,760 he embraces it as if it's his wife, that sort of thing. 606 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:07,860 And almost the entire length of One A.M. 607 00:30:07,860 --> 00:30:11,210 has only one performer in it, Chaplain himself. 608 00:30:11,210 --> 00:30:14,070 And he kind of recreates and modifies 609 00:30:14,070 --> 00:30:16,220 what he had done on stage in that performance. 610 00:30:16,220 --> 00:30:18,240 It is in many ways a very brilliant performance 611 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:22,950 and shows how imaginatively the Chaplain character can interact 612 00:30:22,950 --> 00:30:26,600 with objects, a theme to which I'll return tonight 613 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:29,290 when I talk more systematically about Modern Times 614 00:30:29,290 --> 00:30:33,110 and about certain of Chaplin's favorite strategies 615 00:30:33,110 --> 00:30:34,800 for establishing character. 616 00:30:37,430 --> 00:30:39,030 So he works for the Essanay Company. 617 00:30:39,030 --> 00:30:42,730 He makes 14 films, including in 1915 a film 618 00:30:42,730 --> 00:30:44,980 called The Tramp, fragments of which 619 00:30:44,980 --> 00:30:49,040 I'm going to show you in a few minutes. 620 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,170 Then he's so successful again. 621 00:30:51,170 --> 00:30:54,380 And the 14 films he makes starring the Tramp become 622 00:30:54,380 --> 00:30:56,740 international-- I don't know what 623 00:30:56,740 --> 00:30:59,910 to call them-- international phenomena, best sellers. 624 00:30:59,910 --> 00:31:02,750 And the Tramp becomes the most sought after 625 00:31:02,750 --> 00:31:06,570 and the most memorable character in the movies. 626 00:31:06,570 --> 00:31:10,760 So he's hired away again by the Mutual Company, one year later. 627 00:31:10,760 --> 00:31:15,270 And from 1916 to 1917, he works for the Mutual Company, 628 00:31:15,270 --> 00:31:21,500 in which he makes this time $1 million for that year. 629 00:31:21,500 --> 00:31:23,310 And he makes only eight films in that year. 630 00:31:23,310 --> 00:31:28,480 So he goes from $150 a week, to $1,250 a week, to $1 million 631 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:32,525 a year within three years. 632 00:31:32,525 --> 00:31:36,220 And each move gives him greater creative freedom, 633 00:31:36,220 --> 00:31:37,600 gives him more autonomy. 634 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,750 He begins to sort of really refine his art. 635 00:31:40,750 --> 00:31:45,900 And we can see the process happening in these shorts. 636 00:31:45,900 --> 00:31:50,220 In the films you're going to see tonight, 637 00:31:50,220 --> 00:31:53,980 both of the short films, Easy Street, 1917, 638 00:31:53,980 --> 00:31:56,640 and The Immigrant, also made in 1917, 639 00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,189 come from this Mutual period. 640 00:31:58,189 --> 00:32:00,230 And I mention this to you because they're already 641 00:32:00,230 --> 00:32:01,770 in some sense sophisticated films, 642 00:32:01,770 --> 00:32:04,610 even though they're not feature-length films. 643 00:32:04,610 --> 00:32:07,240 And you can see that Chaplain is bringing all the resources 644 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,490 of his narrative skills, of his skills in creating character 645 00:32:11,490 --> 00:32:12,530 to bear on those films. 646 00:32:12,530 --> 00:32:15,630 They're already in some sense sophisticated works 647 00:32:15,630 --> 00:32:17,270 of narrative. 648 00:32:17,270 --> 00:32:20,090 And there is an apprentice period 649 00:32:20,090 --> 00:32:22,760 that occurs earlier, which I have just described to you. 650 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:27,070 Finally, in his career, he moves, in 1918, 651 00:32:27,070 --> 00:32:33,996 to a company called First National, for which-- those 652 00:32:33,996 --> 00:32:35,870 are the people who pay him a million dollars. 653 00:32:35,870 --> 00:32:36,370 I'm sorry. 654 00:32:36,370 --> 00:32:37,380 I made a mistake. 655 00:32:37,380 --> 00:32:41,266 His Mutual salary was a mere $670,000. 656 00:32:41,266 --> 00:32:42,890 He gets $1 million when he goes to work 657 00:32:42,890 --> 00:32:49,060 for First National in 1918, when he makes, among other films, 658 00:32:49,060 --> 00:32:51,680 one of my favorite Chaplin shorts, a film in which we 659 00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:56,400 see the Tramp character playing a GI in the first World War. 660 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:58,310 It's called Shoulder Arms. 661 00:32:58,310 --> 00:33:00,060 And it's a characteristic Chaplain short, 662 00:33:00,060 --> 00:33:02,240 except that now what Charlie is doing 663 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,490 is contending with the Kaiser's army. 664 00:33:05,490 --> 00:33:07,130 He's fighting World War I. 665 00:33:07,130 --> 00:33:09,420 In earlier films, we'd seen him fighting ice storms. 666 00:33:09,420 --> 00:33:11,120 We'd seen him fighting against hunger. 667 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,320 We'd see him literally fighting in the boxing ring 668 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:15,940 in a film called The Champion. 669 00:33:15,940 --> 00:33:17,910 We'd seen him working as an assistant to a pawn 670 00:33:17,910 --> 00:33:20,240 broker in a film called The Pawn Broker-- 671 00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:21,440 a whole series of jobs. 672 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,260 And by the time we get to 1918, it's 673 00:33:24,260 --> 00:33:27,300 almost as if the Tramp has held virtually every job you 674 00:33:27,300 --> 00:33:28,660 could imagine. 675 00:33:28,660 --> 00:33:30,680 He can't hold a job for long because he's a bum. 676 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:31,810 He's a tramp. 677 00:33:31,810 --> 00:33:34,452 He's footloose. 678 00:33:34,452 --> 00:33:35,910 Again, a theme to which I'll return 679 00:33:35,910 --> 00:33:39,690 when we talk about Modern Times this evening. 680 00:33:39,690 --> 00:33:42,830 And then finally, in 1919, Chaplain 681 00:33:42,830 --> 00:33:44,630 has become such a gigantic figure, 682 00:33:44,630 --> 00:33:46,500 such a international icon, that he 683 00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:50,550 joins with certain other icons, D.W. Griffith, the greatest, 684 00:33:50,550 --> 00:33:55,580 most famous director of the silent era; 685 00:33:55,580 --> 00:33:59,430 and Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, the two most 686 00:33:59,430 --> 00:34:01,990 famous actors after Chaplin in the silent era. 687 00:34:01,990 --> 00:34:07,430 The four of them get together and they form United Artists. 688 00:34:07,430 --> 00:34:09,900 And they formed it in part to create their own company 689 00:34:09,900 --> 00:34:12,710 so that they would be able to control their artistic output. 690 00:34:12,710 --> 00:34:16,540 And Chaplain, working for United Artists, beginning in 1919, 691 00:34:16,540 --> 00:34:18,639 Chaplain goes to work on his feature films. 692 00:34:18,639 --> 00:34:21,630 And he makes the great film, the great silent features, 693 00:34:21,630 --> 00:34:23,650 that are at the heart of his achievement. 694 00:34:23,650 --> 00:34:28,179 He makes The Gold Rush in 1925; a film called The Circus 695 00:34:28,179 --> 00:34:32,000 in 1928, a more imperfect and broken-back film in some way, 696 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,440 but full of some of his most imaginative comic performances; 697 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:40,770 one of his great films in 1931, called City Lights. 698 00:34:40,770 --> 00:34:43,310 And then finally, in 1936, the film you're 699 00:34:43,310 --> 00:34:45,389 going to see tonight, already deeply 700 00:34:45,389 --> 00:34:48,100 into the sound era, a film that remains 701 00:34:48,100 --> 00:34:51,489 in some fundamental way a silent film, Modern Times. 702 00:34:51,489 --> 00:34:54,530 Chaplin then goes on, after the sound era is over, 703 00:34:54,530 --> 00:34:57,470 to make a series of movies in the sound era. 704 00:34:57,470 --> 00:35:00,070 And they all have some modest interest for us 705 00:35:00,070 --> 00:35:01,730 because they're Chaplain films. 706 00:35:01,730 --> 00:35:05,560 Some images from them that remain very famous to this day. 707 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,730 In fact, one of them was in the New York Times today. 708 00:35:08,730 --> 00:35:10,500 Did any of you notice it? 709 00:35:10,500 --> 00:35:14,700 There was an article about a scholar of globes, 710 00:35:14,700 --> 00:35:17,270 who had found evidence for the idea 711 00:35:17,270 --> 00:35:19,680 that a particular globe in a German museum, 712 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:21,640 which was said to have been Hitler's globe, 713 00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:25,260 was not Hitler's globe. 714 00:35:25,260 --> 00:35:26,790 But in the middle of the story, what 715 00:35:26,790 --> 00:35:30,060 they-- any time a person of a certain age 716 00:35:30,060 --> 00:35:32,360 hears the word "globe" and "Hitler," 717 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:34,945 they think of Charlie's film, The Great Dictator. 718 00:35:34,945 --> 00:35:35,570 You're smiling. 719 00:35:35,570 --> 00:35:36,070 Why? 720 00:35:36,070 --> 00:35:37,180 Do you know the image? 721 00:35:37,180 --> 00:35:38,265 Have you seen The Great Dictator? 722 00:35:38,265 --> 00:35:39,181 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 723 00:35:39,181 --> 00:35:41,736 DAVID THORBURN: What is the image they're talking about? 724 00:35:41,736 --> 00:35:43,230 AUDIENCE: Playing with a globe. 725 00:35:43,230 --> 00:35:44,063 DAVID THORBURN: Yes. 726 00:35:44,063 --> 00:35:45,630 There's a moment in the film-- it's 727 00:35:45,630 --> 00:35:48,540 a moment of great-- it's not really a very good film. 728 00:35:48,540 --> 00:35:53,080 And Chaplain's sound films are mostly of historical interest, 729 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,160 despite what some Chaplain buffs would say. 730 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,310 His great work is-- he's a silent artist. 731 00:35:57,310 --> 00:36:00,179 And the sound film caused problems for him 732 00:36:00,179 --> 00:36:01,720 that he couldn't fully adjustable to. 733 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:04,210 But every one of his sound films has interest 734 00:36:04,210 --> 00:36:06,006 and has brilliant moments. 735 00:36:06,006 --> 00:36:07,380 And the one you're remembering is 736 00:36:07,380 --> 00:36:10,890 one of the most remarkable and astonishing symbolic moments 737 00:36:10,890 --> 00:36:12,060 in Chaplin's work. 738 00:36:12,060 --> 00:36:13,090 Yeah. 739 00:36:13,090 --> 00:36:14,650 It's an incredibly ambitious film. 740 00:36:14,650 --> 00:36:17,760 It tells us how ambitious a figure Chaplin 741 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,380 was because he makes a satire of Hitler and Mussolini 742 00:36:21,380 --> 00:36:23,790 in an era when Hitler and Mussolini are not yet 743 00:36:23,790 --> 00:36:27,180 recognized for the egregious, monstrous, evil figures 744 00:36:27,180 --> 00:36:28,760 that we know them to have been. 745 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,020 They were taken seriously. 746 00:36:31,020 --> 00:36:32,965 They had been voted into office. 747 00:36:32,965 --> 00:36:34,590 Millions and millions of people thought 748 00:36:34,590 --> 00:36:36,140 they were admirable leaders. 749 00:36:36,140 --> 00:36:38,770 So when Chaplain made The Great Dictator 750 00:36:38,770 --> 00:36:42,644 in '19-- what- '40 or '41, he was doing 751 00:36:42,644 --> 00:36:43,810 something incredibly daring. 752 00:36:43,810 --> 00:36:45,490 And he was actually showing that he 753 00:36:45,490 --> 00:36:49,110 thought the movies were an art form capable of taking 754 00:36:49,110 --> 00:36:51,364 on the largest political subjects. 755 00:36:51,364 --> 00:36:53,280 So even though there are problems in the film, 756 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,830 and it's not an absolutely great film, 757 00:36:55,830 --> 00:36:58,050 not memorable artistically in its own way, 758 00:36:58,050 --> 00:37:00,000 there are moments in it that are remarkable. 759 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,250 And it's also a significant document 760 00:37:02,250 --> 00:37:04,460 because it reminds us of Chaplin's ambitions 761 00:37:04,460 --> 00:37:05,430 as an artist. 762 00:37:05,430 --> 00:37:07,420 Chaplin was one of the very first filmmakers, 763 00:37:07,420 --> 00:37:09,530 along with D.W. Griffith I suppose, 764 00:37:09,530 --> 00:37:16,950 to realize that the movies had an aesthetic possibility, 765 00:37:16,950 --> 00:37:21,827 latent aesthetic energies and powers that if they were 766 00:37:21,827 --> 00:37:23,660 tapped, would make the movies the equivalent 767 00:37:23,660 --> 00:37:26,264 of traditional art forms, like theater and the novel. 768 00:37:26,264 --> 00:37:27,930 And, of course, he was right about that. 769 00:37:27,930 --> 00:37:31,640 And he even made some films that achieved that level 770 00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:33,070 of seriousness and resonance. 771 00:37:33,070 --> 00:37:34,730 The moment that you're remembering, 772 00:37:34,730 --> 00:37:35,592 what happens in it? 773 00:37:35,592 --> 00:37:37,300 AUDIENCE: He's like dancing with a globe. 774 00:37:37,300 --> 00:37:37,590 DAVID THORBURN: Yes. 775 00:37:38,090 --> 00:37:40,990 It's a moment of sort of manic glee, in which the Hitler 776 00:37:40,990 --> 00:37:43,880 character, played by Charlie Chaplin, takes a globe out 777 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:45,290 and it's like a balloon. 778 00:37:45,290 --> 00:37:46,960 And he pops it up and down. 779 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,340 And we see him throwing it up and kicking it with his hat, 780 00:37:50,340 --> 00:37:51,280 like that. 781 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,380 And it's a kind of fantasy of world domination. 782 00:37:55,380 --> 00:37:59,390 And it's supposed to show what a ridiculous and infantile figure 783 00:37:59,390 --> 00:38:01,830 this mock Hitler is. 784 00:38:01,830 --> 00:38:04,439 And it is the most memorable image from that film. 785 00:38:04,439 --> 00:38:06,230 So in this article, that really had nothing 786 00:38:06,230 --> 00:38:07,896 to do with Chaplain, there was a picture 787 00:38:07,896 --> 00:38:10,700 of Charlie playing Hitler, kicking the balloon 788 00:38:10,700 --> 00:38:11,350 up and down. 789 00:38:11,350 --> 00:38:13,300 And one reason that I think it's significant, 790 00:38:13,300 --> 00:38:16,610 that it's a mark of Chaplin's greatness as an artist, 791 00:38:16,610 --> 00:38:19,350 that even in his imperfect texts, 792 00:38:19,350 --> 00:38:24,170 even in the films that really do not belong to the category, 793 00:38:24,170 --> 00:38:27,680 to the most important category of his most 794 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:33,590 lasting and valuable art, images from those works 795 00:38:33,590 --> 00:38:36,350 are still part of our common cultural inheritance. 796 00:38:36,350 --> 00:38:39,320 He's a very great artist, the first great artist 797 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:40,180 of the movies. 798 00:38:40,180 --> 00:38:45,100 And a figure who's imaginative creations 799 00:38:45,100 --> 00:38:49,020 remain vital and alive today in a way 800 00:38:49,020 --> 00:38:54,680 that very few artists from that era remain, 801 00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:58,370 similarly accessible and important to people. 802 00:38:58,370 --> 00:39:01,640 And it's a mark of the reach of Chaplin's imagination 803 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,490 that this is so, of his importance as a figure. 804 00:39:05,490 --> 00:39:08,144 Well, there's much more one could 805 00:39:08,144 --> 00:39:09,810 say about the development of his career. 806 00:39:09,810 --> 00:39:11,760 But I want to cut this short because I 807 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:15,050 want to show you the moment-- I don't mean that there's only 808 00:39:15,050 --> 00:39:15,880 a single moment. 809 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:19,170 But I want to show you fragments from the film in which we can 810 00:39:19,170 --> 00:39:25,370 see Chaplin really discovering certain aspects of what 811 00:39:25,370 --> 00:39:28,050 he wants to do and also where we can see Chaplin screwing up. 812 00:39:28,050 --> 00:39:31,400 We can see Chaplin at a stage before he becomes 813 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:36,270 the self-confident, totally autonomous artist 814 00:39:36,270 --> 00:39:37,560 he becomes relatively soon. 815 00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:42,320 Can we put up fragments from The Champ-- from the Tramp? 816 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:46,414 This is a film appropriately called The Tramp. 817 00:39:46,414 --> 00:39:47,080 [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 818 00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:47,705 [MUSIC PLAYING] 819 00:39:47,705 --> 00:39:50,240 And it's a fairly characteristic Chaplin film. 820 00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:53,050 But I think it's the film in which, among other things, 821 00:39:53,050 --> 00:39:58,110 Chaplin discovers that he can marry melodrama and comedy. 822 00:39:58,110 --> 00:39:59,950 It's the film in which he discovers 823 00:39:59,950 --> 00:40:03,730 that he can do effects that are pathetic, and poignant, 824 00:40:03,730 --> 00:40:06,890 and sentimental and mix them with comedy in ways 825 00:40:06,890 --> 00:40:08,050 that are interesting. 826 00:40:08,050 --> 00:40:11,472 So here's a scene where Charlie is rescuing a damsel. 827 00:40:11,472 --> 00:40:13,380 And he does it in a kind of comic way. 828 00:40:13,380 --> 00:40:14,900 He's a kind of bum himself. 829 00:40:14,900 --> 00:40:16,960 But he's always a kind of chivalric figure. 830 00:40:19,510 --> 00:40:20,730 Can you jump ahead? 831 00:40:20,730 --> 00:40:25,310 Let's just show the next one, Greg. 832 00:40:25,310 --> 00:40:29,070 I'm just going to show you a bad moment here. 833 00:40:29,070 --> 00:40:30,420 He rescues this girl. 834 00:40:30,420 --> 00:40:34,490 She turns out to be the daughter of a farmer. 835 00:40:34,490 --> 00:40:40,260 He's then hired by the farmer in gratitude. 836 00:40:40,260 --> 00:40:42,416 And then we get this bit. 837 00:40:42,416 --> 00:40:44,290 And I'm showing you this bit partly because I 838 00:40:44,290 --> 00:40:46,190 want you see that it isn't really all that funny 839 00:40:46,190 --> 00:40:47,898 or that it's just kind of easy slapstick. 840 00:41:09,310 --> 00:41:11,585 I don't mean that it's without interest. 841 00:41:11,585 --> 00:41:13,315 It obviously has some interest. 842 00:41:20,510 --> 00:41:23,350 But this incompetence is inconsistent in some respects 843 00:41:23,350 --> 00:41:30,170 with the coherent character that he's going to begin to create. 844 00:41:30,170 --> 00:41:31,560 It's never that the Tramp becomes 845 00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:32,870 this fully competent character. 846 00:41:32,870 --> 00:41:35,530 But this kind of joke here, look at this. 847 00:41:35,530 --> 00:41:37,790 That's his foolish joke. 848 00:41:37,790 --> 00:41:39,380 That trivializes him in a way. 849 00:41:39,380 --> 00:41:42,270 Can you think of examples of that in Keaton? 850 00:41:42,270 --> 00:41:45,300 Remember in Cops, where, for example, when he's riding along 851 00:41:45,300 --> 00:41:49,580 in his car, he devises that mechanism that 852 00:41:49,580 --> 00:41:51,030 ends up punching the cop. 853 00:41:51,030 --> 00:41:53,890 That would be an example of a kind of-- it's a joke. 854 00:41:53,890 --> 00:41:57,740 But it sort of violates the spirit of the movie. 855 00:41:57,740 --> 00:42:01,530 It seems a piece of debris that is forced into the film, that 856 00:42:01,530 --> 00:42:05,620 may have a comic moment, but makes the film less coherent. 857 00:42:05,620 --> 00:42:07,847 That kind of thing is characteristic of the Tramp. 858 00:42:07,847 --> 00:42:09,680 A bit later in The Tramp-- I don't have time 859 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:12,910 to show you this passage-- a bit later in The Tramp, 860 00:42:12,910 --> 00:42:16,530 we see Charlie confronting the woman that he had rescued 861 00:42:16,530 --> 00:42:18,370 and discovering for the first time-- 862 00:42:18,370 --> 00:42:19,613 is it a long sequence, Greg? 863 00:42:19,613 --> 00:42:20,112 GREG: No. 864 00:42:20,112 --> 00:42:21,320 It's only a half minute. 865 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:23,028 DAVID THORBURN: Well, put it up while I'm 866 00:42:23,028 --> 00:42:24,970 talking, if you can find it. 867 00:42:24,970 --> 00:42:26,760 You can see in this sequence, which 868 00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:29,465 I'll let run behind me, while you pay attention to my words-- 869 00:42:30,700 --> 00:42:34,460 --and while the camera looks at it and then comes back to me. 870 00:42:34,460 --> 00:42:36,550 What you can see happening in this sequence 871 00:42:36,550 --> 00:42:40,760 is Chaplin discovering how he can be, not just comical, 872 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:41,950 but sentimental. 873 00:42:41,950 --> 00:42:44,910 How he can elicit sympathy from his audience, 874 00:42:44,910 --> 00:42:46,810 create sentimental effects. 875 00:42:46,810 --> 00:42:49,710 In other words, what Charlie has just done here in this image is 876 00:42:49,710 --> 00:42:51,210 he's meeting the girl's boyfriend. 877 00:42:51,210 --> 00:42:52,876 He didn't know the girl had a boyfriend. 878 00:42:52,876 --> 00:42:54,530 He was falling in love with her. 879 00:42:54,530 --> 00:42:56,299 Watch his expression here. 880 00:43:02,170 --> 00:43:04,220 You see, he's very upset by what he's learned. 881 00:43:04,220 --> 00:43:06,054 In other words, this is not a funny moment. 882 00:43:06,054 --> 00:43:08,512 And this is the moment, I think, in Chaplin's career, where 883 00:43:08,512 --> 00:43:12,160 he realizes the films he's going to make should not be thought 884 00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:14,490 of as simply comedies at all, but as something more 885 00:43:14,490 --> 00:43:17,060 complicated than that, as comedies with heart, 886 00:43:17,060 --> 00:43:19,470 as comedies devoted to character, 887 00:43:19,470 --> 00:43:23,150 as comedies that are interested in human interactions. 888 00:43:23,150 --> 00:43:26,730 And that discovery tremendously enlarged movie comedy, 889 00:43:26,730 --> 00:43:30,640 tremendously enlarged the movies more generally. 890 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:34,635 And then we can see Charlie saying-- Charlie says goodbye. 891 00:43:34,635 --> 00:43:38,190 And he writes this little sad message and he leaves her. 892 00:43:38,190 --> 00:43:41,430 So it's the moment when pathos, sentiment, 893 00:43:41,430 --> 00:43:43,070 enters Chaplin's work. 894 00:43:43,070 --> 00:43:44,570 And in the films you'll see tonight, 895 00:43:44,570 --> 00:43:47,240 you'll understand why, after he made this discovery, 896 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:50,250 he began to meld these two elements more and more 897 00:43:50,250 --> 00:43:51,660 fully together. 898 00:43:51,660 --> 00:43:55,450 So this is a way of reinforcing what I called last week, 899 00:43:55,450 --> 00:43:57,150 the multiplicity principal. 900 00:43:57,150 --> 00:44:00,860 What we can see is that in those jokes with the pitchfork, 901 00:44:00,860 --> 00:44:02,120 there was no multiplicity. 902 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:03,911 They were just funny because Charlie didn't 903 00:44:03,911 --> 00:44:05,570 know how to use the pitchfork. 904 00:44:05,570 --> 00:44:09,440 But later moments in this film, and in many later films, 905 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,050 we see Chaplain beginning to create effects which 906 00:44:12,050 --> 00:44:16,220 have more than one consequence, more than one significance 907 00:44:16,220 --> 00:44:17,280 for the audience. 908 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:20,380 One of the most remarkable things about the chase scenes 909 00:44:20,380 --> 00:44:23,690 that Charlie Chaplin develops and begins 910 00:44:23,690 --> 00:44:25,290 to perform in his films-- and you'll 911 00:44:25,290 --> 00:44:27,380 see wonderful examples of them tonight-- 912 00:44:27,380 --> 00:44:29,340 is that the chase scenes themselves 913 00:44:29,340 --> 00:44:30,547 are tremendously moving. 914 00:44:30,547 --> 00:44:31,755 They're tremendously comical. 915 00:44:35,234 --> 00:44:36,900 They're full of comic bits that are just 916 00:44:36,900 --> 00:44:40,250 as imaginative as any comic sequence one could ask for. 917 00:44:40,250 --> 00:44:43,400 But they do something else, in addition to amuse us. 918 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:46,120 They declare for Charlie's character. 919 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,240 When Charlie runs away from someone, 920 00:44:48,240 --> 00:44:50,990 what we can see him doing is using his intelligence, 921 00:44:50,990 --> 00:44:56,470 using his improvisatory capacity to figure out how to get away. 922 00:44:56,470 --> 00:44:58,750 So that even when he's running, he 923 00:44:58,750 --> 00:45:00,630 is also expressing his nature. 924 00:45:00,630 --> 00:45:03,550 And when the audience sees the imaginative, or clever, 925 00:45:03,550 --> 00:45:05,670 or daring way in which he makes his escape 926 00:45:05,670 --> 00:45:07,850 in a particular chase sequence, they're not just 927 00:45:07,850 --> 00:45:09,710 being amused by a joke. 928 00:45:09,710 --> 00:45:13,780 They are also understanding his character in a deep way. 929 00:45:13,780 --> 00:45:16,930 He's defining his character, even as he's also amusing us. 930 00:45:16,930 --> 00:45:19,550 So we can feel the multiplicity of that, the density, 931 00:45:19,550 --> 00:45:23,090 the texture of that, always a mark of superior entertainment, 932 00:45:23,090 --> 00:45:26,220 always a mark, I would say, of art itself. 933 00:45:26,220 --> 00:45:29,030 Well, one way to clarify some of this, 934 00:45:29,030 --> 00:45:31,660 and especially to clarify Chaplin's 935 00:45:31,660 --> 00:45:36,450 remarkable popularity, is to talk about the Tramp as a myth, 936 00:45:36,450 --> 00:45:37,660 as a mythic figure. 937 00:45:37,660 --> 00:45:39,440 And if you think about his costume, 938 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:41,720 you'll understand partly what I mean. 939 00:45:41,720 --> 00:45:44,440 He wears a coat and vest that are too tight 940 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:46,340 and pants and shoes that are too big. 941 00:45:46,340 --> 00:45:49,350 So the principle of mismatch or of ambiguity 942 00:45:49,350 --> 00:45:51,970 is built into his costume. 943 00:45:51,970 --> 00:45:54,920 And then he carries this cane and this hat. 944 00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:56,600 Now, he shows a kind of elegance. 945 00:45:56,600 --> 00:46:01,330 But it's a kind of shabby, down-market elegance. 946 00:46:01,330 --> 00:46:05,115 But the question is, is Charlie downwardly mobile? 947 00:46:05,115 --> 00:46:07,260 Is he an aristocrat who's fallen on hard times? 948 00:46:07,260 --> 00:46:12,210 Or is he a poor person, who has put on airs and aspires 949 00:46:12,210 --> 00:46:15,620 to the world of tuxedos and fancy clothes? 950 00:46:15,620 --> 00:46:17,280 This question is never answered. 951 00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:19,260 And that ambiguity in his character 952 00:46:19,260 --> 00:46:22,270 may be part of why the audience is able to identify with him. 953 00:46:22,270 --> 00:46:24,170 There's an uncertainty about where 954 00:46:24,170 --> 00:46:28,590 he belongs, a kind of mismatch or an ambiguity 955 00:46:28,590 --> 00:46:29,920 inherent in his costume. 956 00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:34,790 His body itself is a source of his mythological status. 957 00:46:34,790 --> 00:46:38,060 It's small, dexterous, energetic, incredibly graceful. 958 00:46:38,060 --> 00:46:41,870 He's one of the great acrobats and physical dancers, 959 00:46:41,870 --> 00:46:44,595 physical performers, that you'll ever see. 960 00:46:44,595 --> 00:46:46,490 And in the films you'll see tonight, 961 00:46:46,490 --> 00:46:48,740 you'll see many examples of this, including examples 962 00:46:48,740 --> 00:46:53,770 of Chaplain on skates, of Chaplain doing 963 00:46:53,770 --> 00:46:58,640 the equivalent of dances, and of his dexterousness 964 00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:06,030 in situations involving running or escape, just as powerfully 965 00:47:06,030 --> 00:47:07,130 as anyone. 966 00:47:07,130 --> 00:47:08,580 We'll see dramatizations of this, 967 00:47:08,580 --> 00:47:12,560 just as powerful as anyone could ever imagine, ever hope for. 968 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:13,510 And then his face. 969 00:47:13,510 --> 00:47:16,380 So his costume, his body, and then his face 970 00:47:16,380 --> 00:47:17,750 are part of the myth as well. 971 00:47:17,750 --> 00:47:19,750 He has an unbelievably expressive face. 972 00:47:19,750 --> 00:47:21,370 His face is a theater in itself. 973 00:47:21,370 --> 00:47:24,010 And it was Chaplain, more than any other early director, 974 00:47:24,010 --> 00:47:27,410 who explored the implications of the closeup. 975 00:47:27,410 --> 00:47:30,020 And I'll show you some examples tonight 976 00:47:30,020 --> 00:47:32,350 of the way in which Chaplin manages 977 00:47:32,350 --> 00:47:39,190 to use the closeup in silent film for incredibly-- to do so. 978 00:47:39,190 --> 00:47:40,870 And to be, at the same time, what 979 00:47:40,870 --> 00:47:43,830 we might call deeply, incredibly eloquent, 980 00:47:43,830 --> 00:47:47,370 a silence that is eloquent because of the qualities 981 00:47:47,370 --> 00:47:49,390 in his face. 982 00:47:49,390 --> 00:47:51,360 And the moral qualities of the Tramp 983 00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,330 are also appropriately ambiguous. 984 00:47:54,330 --> 00:47:56,510 He has chivalric qualities. 985 00:47:56,510 --> 00:47:59,820 He wants to defend children and vulnerable women. 986 00:47:59,820 --> 00:48:02,850 He's always a kind of defender of the weak. 987 00:48:02,850 --> 00:48:05,160 But at the same time, he's an opportunist and also 988 00:48:05,160 --> 00:48:06,160 a survivor. 989 00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:08,290 And these qualities don't fit perfectly together. 990 00:48:08,290 --> 00:48:11,600 And we see both elements in the Tramp character, 991 00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:12,310 again and again. 992 00:48:12,310 --> 00:48:14,890 Again, tonight, in The Immigrant especially, 993 00:48:14,890 --> 00:48:17,840 you'll see both sides of the Chaplain character, 994 00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:23,910 both his opportunistic side and also his chivalric side. 995 00:48:23,910 --> 00:48:26,160 So these qualities created a kind 996 00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:29,890 of mythic aura, a mythic authority for Chaplin. 997 00:48:29,890 --> 00:48:32,840 And there's one other thing that contributed to the myth. 998 00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:36,210 It was that there's a historical reality to the hobo figure. 999 00:48:36,210 --> 00:48:38,090 Long before Charlie Chaplin began 1000 00:48:38,090 --> 00:48:41,930 to perform as a kind of tramp figure in the movies, 1001 00:48:41,930 --> 00:48:44,260 they were real tramps in the society. 1002 00:48:44,260 --> 00:48:51,590 And the existence of a genuine population of homeless people-- 1003 00:48:51,590 --> 00:48:56,570 they often rode the rails, and they 1004 00:48:56,570 --> 00:49:01,520 were present actors in most large and small cities 1005 00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:02,640 in the country. 1006 00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:05,230 The fact was there was a population of homeless people 1007 00:49:05,230 --> 00:49:08,990 that the Tramp figure alluded to and reminded the audience of. 1008 00:49:08,990 --> 00:49:13,160 And that also helped to strengthen his mystic power 1009 00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:16,880 because it was as if the audience was recognizing 1010 00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:20,250 that in some sense Charlie was a kind of embodiment 1011 00:49:20,250 --> 00:49:24,650 or a symbol of this social actuality. 1012 00:49:24,650 --> 00:49:29,070 So he had a kind of mythic power that communicated itself 1013 00:49:29,070 --> 00:49:29,900 to his audience. 1014 00:49:29,900 --> 00:49:33,090 And it meant that every repetition of a Tramp film, 1015 00:49:33,090 --> 00:49:35,630 which might very well go through the same motions, 1016 00:49:35,630 --> 00:49:38,110 but put the Tramp in a slightly different environment 1017 00:49:38,110 --> 00:49:39,830 or a slightly different job, would 1018 00:49:39,830 --> 00:49:42,400 be pleasing to the audience, some principle of repetition 1019 00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:44,240 and variation. 1020 00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:47,796 Well, finally, the paradox of Chaplin's work. 1021 00:49:47,796 --> 00:49:49,920 And the paradox I want you to think about tonight-- 1022 00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:53,860 and we'll end with this point-- is that Chaplin's world 1023 00:49:53,860 --> 00:49:55,511 is full of comedy. 1024 00:49:55,511 --> 00:49:57,510 It's a comedian's world, although it's more than 1025 00:49:57,510 --> 00:49:59,250 just comic, as I've suggested. 1026 00:49:59,250 --> 00:50:01,320 But the irony of Chaplin's world is 1027 00:50:01,320 --> 00:50:04,120 that the comedy is so fundamentally based on things 1028 00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:06,270 that are so deeply unfunny. 1029 00:50:06,270 --> 00:50:09,710 Chaplin's the most deeply social and in some ways even political 1030 00:50:09,710 --> 00:50:11,040 of directors. 1031 00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:12,830 And I'll discuss this aspect of his work 1032 00:50:12,830 --> 00:50:16,260 tonight, when we talk about Modern Times and some 1033 00:50:16,260 --> 00:50:17,120 of his other films. 1034 00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:19,790 But the crucial point here is that Chaplain's world 1035 00:50:19,790 --> 00:50:22,250 is a world of elemental themes. 1036 00:50:22,250 --> 00:50:24,300 Virtually every single Chaplin movie 1037 00:50:24,300 --> 00:50:29,570 is about hunger, aggression, victimization, confinement. 1038 00:50:29,570 --> 00:50:33,710 I mean the subject matter of Chaplin's comedy 1039 00:50:33,710 --> 00:50:35,430 is the furthest from comedy. 1040 00:50:35,430 --> 00:50:37,370 And part of his genius, part of what 1041 00:50:37,370 --> 00:50:40,170 makes him such a remarkable and important artist, 1042 00:50:40,170 --> 00:50:43,880 is that this immensely unpromising material, 1043 00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:48,800 this disturbing and in many ways frightening material, 1044 00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:52,230 dramatized sometimes with full frightening effect-- Chaplin 1045 00:50:52,230 --> 00:50:54,930 often, because of his diminutiveness, 1046 00:50:54,930 --> 00:50:58,120 puts himself up against large figures, giant figures, 1047 00:50:58,120 --> 00:51:00,720 to emphasize his vulnerability and smallness. 1048 00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:04,280 Again and again, the substance of Chaplin's comedy 1049 00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:07,060 is the substance of victimization, aggression, 1050 00:51:07,060 --> 00:51:10,940 misery, inequality, inequity. 1051 00:51:10,940 --> 00:51:13,570 In other words, the subject matter of Chaplin's work 1052 00:51:13,570 --> 00:51:15,210 is the furthest from comedy. 1053 00:51:15,210 --> 00:51:20,200 And yet he makes enduring comedy, enduring melodrama, out 1054 00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:22,720 of those unpromising materials. 1055 00:51:22,720 --> 00:51:25,620 That paradox about Chaplin's world 1056 00:51:25,620 --> 00:51:27,040 is at the heart of his work. 1057 00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:31,180 And it's at the heart of why, of all silent directors, 1058 00:51:31,180 --> 00:51:33,950 his very best films remain interesting today 1059 00:51:33,950 --> 00:51:37,090 intrinsically, not just because they're wonderfully interesting 1060 00:51:37,090 --> 00:51:38,140 artifacts. 1061 00:51:38,140 --> 00:51:43,917 But intrinsically because they remain serious, valuable films. 1062 00:51:43,917 --> 00:51:45,500 All of the Chaplain films you're going 1063 00:51:45,500 --> 00:51:48,350 to see tonight, the two shorts and Modern Times, 1064 00:51:48,350 --> 00:51:51,315 fit that description, as I hope you will agree. 1065 00:51:51,315 --> 00:51:53,440 See you this evening.