A CINEMATIC GENIUS NAMED CHARLIE
Afflicted with sudden attack of diligence, I was tidying up my ‘extensive’ collection of DVDs in my cabinet a few days ago when I chanced upon this Charlie Chaplin movie, The Circus. Napanood ko na ito pero sa kawalan ng magawa at dahil nakalimutan ko na kung ano ang kuwento ng pelikula, pinanood ko uli. Namalayan ko na lang ang sarili ko na walang patumanggang humahalakhak sa maraming eksena ng pelikula. Chaplin’s tightrope act (which happened near the end of the movie) was still very, very funny. Kung may sakit ka sa puso at delikado sa iyo ang tumawa ng todo, iwasan mo ang eksenang ito. After watching the movie, I rushed back to my collection of original (eeww!) DVDs and searched for other Chaplin movies. I found three more. The Great Dictator ( a movie that criticized Hitler who at that time was still in power; a very valiant move from Chaplin), Limelight and Monsieur Verdoux. I watched all of them again and I was vastly entertained again. Chaplin wrote, produced and directed most of his films. My great fascination with this very funny actor was certainly reawakened.
These four movies(which are all talkies except for The Circus) are all great but Charlie Chaplin’s greatest and most revered films, no doubt, are City Lights and Modern Times, which are both silent films and unfortunately are not in my collection. Pero napanood ko na ang mga ito. At kung gusto n’yong mapanood ang mga ito dahil nabubuwisit kayo sa mga bagong comedy films (local and imported) na hindi naman talaga nakakatawa at iniinsulto ang talino ninyo bilang manonood pero wala kayong panahong gumala upang maghanap ng kopya nito, puwede ninyong mapanood (putul-putol nga lang) ang dalawang klasikong pelikulang ito sa Youtube. Sangkaterba na ang nagnakaw ng eksena at ideya mula sa dalawang pelikulang ito pero nananatiling kahanga-hanga, hindi naluluma at sobrang nakakatawa pa rin ang mga ito. You can watch City Lights here and Modern Times here.
City Lights has Chaplin’s lovable Little Tramp character falling in love with a blind flower vendor while Modern Times has Chaplin going bonkers over his stressful job at a steel factory. City Lights has one of the funniest (if not the funniest) sequences (the boxing scene) in film history. Its ending (wherein he and the girl, whose eyesight he helped restore, met again) is also considered as one of the most touching movie endings of all time.
These four movies(which are all talkies except for The Circus) are all great but Charlie Chaplin’s greatest and most revered films, no doubt, are City Lights and Modern Times, which are both silent films and unfortunately are not in my collection. Pero napanood ko na ang mga ito. At kung gusto n’yong mapanood ang mga ito dahil nabubuwisit kayo sa mga bagong comedy films (local and imported) na hindi naman talaga nakakatawa at iniinsulto ang talino ninyo bilang manonood pero wala kayong panahong gumala upang maghanap ng kopya nito, puwede ninyong mapanood (putul-putol nga lang) ang dalawang klasikong pelikulang ito sa Youtube. Sangkaterba na ang nagnakaw ng eksena at ideya mula sa dalawang pelikulang ito pero nananatiling kahanga-hanga, hindi naluluma at sobrang nakakatawa pa rin ang mga ito. You can watch City Lights here and Modern Times here.
City Lights has Chaplin’s lovable Little Tramp character falling in love with a blind flower vendor while Modern Times has Chaplin going bonkers over his stressful job at a steel factory. City Lights has one of the funniest (if not the funniest) sequences (the boxing scene) in film history. Its ending (wherein he and the girl, whose eyesight he helped restore, met again) is also considered as one of the most touching movie endings of all time. 
Modern Times, on the other hand, will show you where Michael Jackson got his inspiration for his celebrated moonwalk dancestep. Look out for the scene where Chaplin’s auditioning to be a singing and dancing waiter. The scene where he picked up a harmless red flag and inadvertently joined a communist parade is also very funny. Chaplin’s facial reactions are always priceless. In real life, Chaplin would be accused of being a communist and would be forced out of his country. Some ideas in his films were then considered critical of government.
But then, real artists are always critical of a bad government. 
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