Modern Times

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 1936 to December 31, 1936
Dates Note: 1936
Country of Origin: United States
Place of Origin: United States
Languages: Silent with music and sound effects
Color: B&W
Silent: No
Based On:
Additional Info:

Curator Notes

Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
Movie Matinees for All Ages
Description: 

It starts with an overhead shot of sheep and cuts to the throngs coming out of a subway station. Was Charlie Chaplin a Surrealist, or just a realist? His version of modern times looks forward in equal measure to Jacques Tati and 1984. This “silent” is full of modern sounds, heard over loudspeakers and big corporate television screens (not to mention the Tramp’s outburst of French-inspired gibberish). Charlie, the ever-elegant Tramp, is an industrial swashbuckler with an oilcan for a sword, but he’s begun taking on the characteristics of factory machines, obsessively twisting buttons no matter where they are.

Authors/Roles: 
Judy Bloch

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