Charlie Chaplin's name is almost unknown to everyone. His works are well-known worldwide, and the classic image created in his early years has almost made him synonymous with silent comedy. After entering the sound film era, Chaplin's film production has decreased, but the quality has not declined in any way. "Monsieur Verdoux" (_Monsieur Verdoux_, 1947) is one of his most outstanding sound film works. The film does not have the warmth and acrimony of Chaplin in the past, but a black comedy: the story is adapted from a true French story, the protagonist Mr. Verdoux used to be a bank employee, with his disabled wife Mona and son Pete Live a peaceful and happy life together. However, the good times did not last long. The Great Depression that swept across the world caused Mr. Verdoux to lose his job as a bank teller. In order to survive, Mr. Verdoux began hunting for pornography all over France, defrauding money and killing people invisible. However, Mr. Verdoux encountered various difficulties in the process of deceiving everywhere, and a sad comedy began.
On the 1947 movie poster, we saw the slogan: "Chaplin Changes! Can you?" (Chaplin Changes! Can you?) It can be seen that even when the film was released, the film also subverted people. Awareness of Chaplin's movies. The image of the awkward and kind-hearted homeless man with a small top hat and mustache in the past has suddenly turned into a frivolous, calm-hearted French serial murderer, which makes people wonder how Chaplin got such a subversive inspiration? In fact, the appearance of "Mr. Verdoux" involves a famous and interesting film history: at the very beginning of the film, we surprisingly discovered that the film’s story idea came from Orson Wells ("Based on an idea by Orson Wells")-his debut work "Citizen Kane" (_Citizen Kane_, 1941) shocked the world once it was released, and it still occupies the supreme position in the minds of critics, occupying the first position in film history all the year round-although it is written here It's clear, but the story behind it is much more complicated than this, and the two people have their own opinions on the issue of the film screenwriter's signature.
From Chaplin's perspective, he claimed that Orson Wells had the idea to make a series of documentaries, in which the part about the serial killer Henri Landru invited him to appear. Chaplin was very interested at first, but Wells had not yet written the script at the time. I hope Chaplin can help him complete the script creation. Chaplin did not agree at first, and then suddenly got inspired, he bought out this idea with five thousand dollars, and completely subverted the previous Wells's vision of documentary film, and created this black comedy. Wells completely rejected this statement, saying that he already had a script. Chaplin initially agreed to act, but then changed his mind temporarily and decided to buy the script and direct it himself. Wells desperately needed money, so he agreed to his proposal. According to Wells, Chaplin rewrote several important passages, including the closing part.
Indeed, Chaplin's interest in Henry Lando may have been around for a long time: when Lando was tried in Paris in 1921, Chaplin happened to be in Paris, so it is very likely that he was paying attention to this case and to this. Things left a deep impression. Wells’s question about Chaplin’s rewriting of paragraphs should also be true. We can clearly see traces of physical comedy in "Mr. The film’s silent composition and concise camera scheduling also hint at Chaplin’s overall control. However, from the perspective of the final film, it is difficult to say that the film has not been influenced by Orson Wells. After all, the "black" and crime in the "black comedy" are by no means Chaplin good at, but more He is biased towards Orson Wells’ creations, especially when he thinks of another masterpiece after Wells, "Touch of Evil" (_Touch of Evil_, 1958). To a certain extent, "Mr. Verdoux" is just a work on the extension of "Citizen Kane" to "Gone with the Tribulation". It is not only related to the lack of love and the growth of evil in human nature, but also to capitalism. The environment of rise and depression is inseparable.
Of course, Chaplin also undoubtedly paved a good background for "Mr. Verdoux". In one of the most important scenes of the film, Mr. Verdoux originally intended to choose a homeless man to experiment with the poison made by him, but he brought a woman who had just been released back home. During the conversation, the woman gradually confided her own experiences, including her crippled husband, which also reminded Mr. Verdoux of his own situation, and finally gave up the poisoning plan and began to help the woman. I am afraid that it is not until then that we can confirm that almost all Mr. Verdoux murdered were the upper-class people who were lazy and lazy, and took good care of the poor and weak low-level people and even stray cats. This touching meeting is hard not to remind people of Chaplin’s earlier work "City Lights" (1931)-also helping a woman without asking for anything in return, but this The second good is also mixed with a color of evil that may be given to him by Wells.
In addition to stratification, the film also summarized the political and social environment of the world at that time: the development of capitalism was facing a crisis, the economic depression caused the unemployment population to rise sharply, and the world financial system was facing collapse...all of these are Chaplin dealt with the problems in the silent film period, especially the tramp series. Not only that, the profound point of "Mr. Verdoux" is that it recognizes the profound connection between the crisis of capitalism and the rise of Nazis, and the rise of the extreme right is also presented in this work in the form of documentary fragments. If there is an external and formal close connection between the Tramp series and Chaplin’s first audio film "The Great Dictator" (1940) seven years ago, that is, these works are based on similar characters. On the basis of modeling, then through "Mr. Verdoux", we actually also established a certain internal connection between Chaplin's former "Modern Times" (1936) works and "The Great Dictator".
Although the film is now hailed as a classic, it did not have a good response at the time. This was not due to the low quality of the film, but due to the change of domestic political trends in the United States. The anti-communist call is on the rise; on the other hand, inflation has led to a sharp decline in people’s living standards, and the wave of strikes has risen one after another. At this point in time, Chaplin, who frequently presents the ills of the bottom life (Mr. Verdoux clearly talks about the bottom of France, but in fact it is still talking about American society; after all, everyone in the film is talking about it. English) naturally became the target of public criticism. What's more unfortunate is that Chaplin's chaotic private life has also become a focus of public criticism. With the rise of McCarthyism in the following years, Chaplin's media and public reputation has declined sharply, which obviously affects people's perception of him. Evaluation of works.
Coincidentally, Orson Wells was also included in the Hollywood blacklist by the FBI because of his political stance, so it is logical that the two moved to Europe: Chaplin moved to Switzerland and never returned to the United States, and Wells. In order to make movies and earn money, he traveled in various European countries and returned to the United States in 1956. Perhaps just like their experience, world history is always in confrontation, and people's hearts are always in fierce contradictions. Mr. Verdoux is such a role, a miniature, he is at the gray midpoint of the intersection of good and evil, in a huge and unstoppable change; his love is almost eternal, but the world he lives in is yet another Extremely fragile.
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