The second time I watched Modern Times, the last time was last Saturday, January 22. That was the first time I watched a silent film. When I read books about movies before, I learned that when a movie was played in the silent era, there would be a live band soundtrack, so "silent movies" are not completely silent. That's why I wasn't taken aback by the eagerly driving the flock at the beginning of the film. However, when the leisurely president threw off the pieces of the puzzle and turned his head to say "Section five, speed her up" through the monitor, I was really surprised. I hurriedly pressed the pause button and hurriedly asked Du Niang about "Modern Times". "Whether it is a silent film. Of course, "Modern Times" is still a silent film. In this film, Chaplin adheres to his belief in "performance", insists on expressing information with rich body language, and only selectively "speaks" a small amount in it. dialogue.
It may be more appropriate to use "monologue", as mentioned above "Section five, speed her up", it is just an imperative imperative sentence, no language as an answer, only an action as a response. Therefore, those languages that are fortunate to be chosen to be output in the form of sound must have special meaning, otherwise why choose them and not others. In the film, the president who "talks" the most, followed by the sales of the "feeding machine". The president's words are nothing more than "don't be lazy", "speed up", etc., probably to express the oppression of capitalists in the industrial age. However, the people who introduced the "feeding machine" were not the ones who came to the president's office. There were three people in total, one was a mechanical inventor in a suit and leather shoes, and the other two were assistants. The introduction of the "feeding machine" was a phonograph, and the voice claimed to be a "mechanical salesman".
An interesting picture appeared: the inventor of the suit and leather shoes would not introduce the "feeding machine", the eloquent salesman was a machine (a gramophone), and the two of them served the president of the same suit and leather shoes. The users of the machines are workers. Obviously, the first three have never seen how the workers eat. "Mechanical arm pushes food", "toggles the tongue", "disinfects the mouth and wipes the mouth", etc. It is obvious that a certain kind of superior service enjoys high-level service as the conscious object to design a machine for lower-level workers. The effect can be imagined. Sure enough, when the inventor demonstrated the machine with the protagonist as a service object, the machine was frequently out of order. The president also refused to buy the machine on the grounds that it was "not practical."
When demonstrating the use of the "feeding machine", the transformation of the male protagonist's facial expressions can be described as superb, with quick switching between surprised, leisurely, anxious, frightened, etc. Because it is fixed by the machine frame and lacks the help of limbs such as hands and feet, in terms of performance, the comedy effect of this close-up depends entirely on the facial expressions of the actors. Of course, the overall effect also depends on the blessing of the fast-paced soundtrack.
Speaking of the soundtrack, the film begins with a fast-paced piece of music driving the flock and the crowd. There is a black one in the flock, and I don't know if it was deliberately arranged. It is a maverick among all living beings. However, after going directly from the flock to the rushing crowd, and then entering the president's office, the soundtrack stopped. The president was playing a puzzle and got bored. Don't let it go. Later, an employee who screwed the screw (probably the black sheep) went crazy. He looked at everything like a screw and wanted to screw it, and was sent to a mental hospital. The symbolism is obvious. But now the movie is only a third of the way through! At the beginning of the film, there is a passage "A story of industry, of individual enterprise ~ humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness", it seems that the remaining two-thirds are the pursuit of happiness.
In the industrial age, perhaps the way for all living beings to pursue happiness is to enter the factory as a worker, which may have penetrated deeply into the hearts of people at that time. After the male protagonist recovered, he was unfortunately imprisoned, but was lucky enough to get out of prison and obtained a job recommendation letter from the warden. Relying on this letter, the protagonist has found several jobs, but none of them are in the factory. The protagonist treats these jobs with palpable slack, and none of the other jobs seem to be welcome compared to the cheers when he learns that the factory has reopened. In the end, when the hostess helped him introduce the restaurant waiter job, he was also very listless. From this point of view, the male protagonist has a stubbornness towards work, and this stubbornness makes him loose and makes him only shout "Now we'll get a real home" when he learns that the factory is reopening.
So, at the end, the male protagonist encourages the female protagonist to "Buck up – never say die. We'll get along", which I think is somewhat far-fetched, and that sentence should come from the female protagonist. Looking at the whole film, the male protagonist is more inclined to be sloppy and lack of fighting spirit. From the beginning of his unwillingness to get out of prison, to the last time he was driven by the female protagonist to become a waiter. Perhaps, only on the basis of believing that the factory will reopen will the male protagonist feel that he can handle everything. On the other hand, the heroine, from escaping when she was an orphan, to dancing on the street when the hero was in prison (giving her a job), the heroine is the one who believes that she can overcome all difficulties, and she did exactly that. .
Postscript: I wrote the first third of the film in two-thirds of the space, not that the last two-thirds have nothing to say. The last two-thirds of the film is also very exciting, after all, it is the pursuit of happiness, although there are many trials and tribulations. However, in order not to spoil too much, I'll leave it out. The main thing is, it's time for me to go to bed, good night!
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