"Modern Times", if not for the Markey class, maybe it will take me a long time to get in touch with this classic Chaplin masterpiece. Accustomed to seeing the colorful world, the talented and beautiful perform the joys and sorrows in the feasting, but was inadvertently deeply touched by Chaplin's black and white silent world. His thick black eyebrows, equally striking eyes, and a moustache on his lips make for a comical face. Add that ill-fitting tuxedo, baggy pants, oversized leather shoes. When it comes to Chaplin, this witty and lively look always pops out of my mind, nibbling on his skates like in Modern Times. Watching Chaplin's silent films, people always forget the necessity of lines and focus on his non-stop dancing, as if he was born with endless energy. Writing here, I can't help but compare the cross talk sketches in the Spring Festival Gala with his comedy films, which are equally laughable, but he is very serious not only performing, but playing this role. Make people happy without forgetting to think. The three workers were scolded by the foreman if they were inadvertently working on the assembly line. As long as the assembly line was running, they had no time to care about anything. Entrepreneurs can play jigsaw puzzles in the office, turn on monitors and see what's going on in every corner, even the toilet. This is the best reason for the salesman to sell the so-called automatic feeder. It is also because it is not practical and cannot increase the output and reduce the expenditure very well. This automatic feeder has not been favored by business owners. Watching Chaplin's thin body resting on a cold metal machine, he panicked to meet the food that was automatically delivered and the mouth wipe that rushed towards you before you could swallow it. I wanted to laugh but couldn't. The fate of an individual is always inseparable from the background of the times. Chaplin's modern era is exactly the Ukiyo-e during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Chaplin's accidental participation in the labor movement, the heroine's father was shot, the mall was robbed... All these are the cross sections of that turbulent era. The supporting role that made a deep impression on me is the policeman in this film. This character throughout the film is ubiquitous, as opposed to the Hong Kong film where the police always appear last and are awarded the most useless group. Maybe it was the need of the movie plot, but it really made me feel the instability of the society and the sharpness of contradictions and conflicts in that era. When the male and female protagonists finally have a dilapidated house that can be painted with a big "demolition" but can be called home, their joy makes people happy, and they are also happy with them. Although at the same time, Chaplin kept making people laugh with unexpected movements. Before the subprime mortgage crisis became history, Someone must have compared it to previous economic crises, and naturally to the so-called "modern era" - the Great Depression. It's a pity that I don't study economics, and there is no academic analysis. But it also seems to see some similarities. When analyzing capitalism, Capital mentions that capital accumulation accelerates the displacement of workers, resulting in a "relative surplus" of workers and "capitalist overpopulation". This allows capitalism to expand production extremely rapidly. Overproduction leads to periodic crises in capitalist society. The Great Depression occurred because of excess capacity in capitalist society. The subprime mortgage crisis this time is also due to poor supervision, which has made the real estate market extremely prosperous and surplus, and eventually led to the rupture of the capital chain. A dangerous game of tearing down the east and the west has burst the bubble after dazzling economic growth. In previous economic crises, it is still the people at the bottom of the society who have suffered huge losses in the end. Wall Street executives can walk bankrupt companies with good pay under the condemnation of society. And the entrepreneurs of the "Modern Age" didn't see them robbing stores for a living. When Chaplin oversees the mall, he can only meet former co-workers instead of bosses. The opening subtitle of the film reads: "Modern Times: The Story of the Industrial Age. It tells the conflict between individual enterprises and human beings' pursuit of happiness." Enterprises cannot give people happiness, but in pursuit of an ideal happy life, when they hear that factories resume production , the protagonist is still struggling in the crowd to seize the opportunity to work. A powerful irony, but also a powerless fact. Chaplin's film does not necessarily want to accuse capitalist society, but it gives us an excellent perspective to see the whole panther of Western society. But at the same time, society is also changing and developing, and there are not many places that can be equated with the economic crisis we are experiencing now. Western countries intervene in the economic life of the country and the world through various "Roosevelt New Deals" such as improving welfare and strengthening supervision. Writing here, I can't help but say a few words about the structure of the film's technique. There seems to be only one use of montage in the whole film, that is, in the beginning, the sheep are out of the sheepfold and people are running around for work. Impressive, but unfortunately there are too few. Since Chaplin's insistence on sticking to black and white silent films led to his decline in the era of color sound films, it is natural to understand his rejection of the adoption of new technologies. Very little movement of the camera makes the entire film almost focus on Chaplin's personal performance. The focus on Chaplin's solo performance also contributed to the film's somewhat loose structure. Similar to Feng Xiaogang's "If You Are the One", the two films are also comedies strung together with many "sketches" that are not closely related. "Modern Times" Some of the performances in "Generation" are very good, but they don't seem to have much connection with the theme. Perhaps it is to confirm the Chinese saying "a fool has a foolish blessing", Chaplin's performance of some crazy bachelors will always be favored by beautiful women. The love between the two is also a clue to the film, which has experienced many setbacks and hopes have turned into disappointments. In the end, the two walked on the deserted avenue with their heads held high, and the title of the film was Dawn. Although they don't know how to go in the future, at least at that moment, they have the fighting spirit that can overcome everything, and have an incomparably beautiful yearning. When I was writing this review, Eason Chan's "Long Time No See" came from the speaker, a very heavy song, but in the MV, the singer wore Chaplin's classic outfit, and there was a person waving it. Walking stick, dancing alone. Sad songs are performed by comedy performers, yet they seem so integrated. Perhaps the singer saw the poignant tears in Chaplin's light humor.
View more about Modern Times reviews
