Modern Times (film) Totally Explained

Everything about Modern Times Film totally explained

Modern Times is a 1936 comedy film by Charlie Chaplin that has his famous Little Tramp character struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization. The movie stars Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman, Stanley Sandford and Chester Conklin. It was written and directed by Chaplin, and marked the final screen appearance of the iconic Tramp character.
In 1989, this film was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Plot

Modern Times portrays Charlie Chaplin as a factory worker, employed on an assembly line. After being subjected to such indignities as being force-fed by a 'modern' feeding machine and an accelerating assembly line where Chaplin screws nuts at an ever-increasing rate onto pieces of machinery, he suffers a mental breakdown. Chaplin is sent to a hospital. Following his recovery the now unemployed Chaplin is mistakenly arrested for leading a Communist demonstration when he was only attempting to return a flag that fell off a delivery truck. In jail, he accidentally eats smuggled cocaine - believing it to be salt. In his subsequent state he walks into a jailbreak and knocks out the convicts. He is hailed a hero and is released.
Outside the jail, he discovers life is harsh, and attempts to get arrested after failing to get a decent job. He soon runs into an orphan girl (a gamine) who is fleeing the police after stealing a loaf of bread. To save the girl he tells police that he's the thief and ought to be arrested. However, a witness reveals his deception and he's freed. In order to get arrested again, he eats an enormous amount of food at a cafeteria without paying. He meets up with the gamine in the paddy wagon which crashes, and they escape. Dreaming of a better life, he gets a job as a night watchman at a department store, sneaks the homeless gamine into the store, and even lets burglars have some food. Waking up the next morning in a pile of clothes, he's arrested once more.
Ten days later, the gamine takes him to a new home - a run-down shack which she admits "isn't Buckingham Palace" but will do. The next morning, the worker reads about a new factory and lands a job there. He helps extricate his boss out of machinery, before the other workers' demonstrations. Accidentally paddling a brick into a policeman, he's arrested again. Two weeks later, he's released and learns that the gamine is a cafe dancer, and she tries to get him a job as a singer. By night, he becomes an efficient waiter though he finds it difficult to tell the difference between the "in" and "out" doors to the kitchen, or to successfully deliver a roast duck to table. During his floor show, he loses a cuff that bears the lyrics of his song, but he rescues his act by improvising the words in gibberish while pantomiming. His act proves a hit. When police arrive to arrest the gamine for her earlier escape, they escape again. Finally, we see them walking down a road at dawn, towards an uncertain but hopeful future.

Cast

Charlie Chaplin as a factory worker
Paulette Goddard as a gamine, named Ellen Peterson
Henry Bergman as a Cafe proprietor
Chester Conklin as a Mechanic
Stanley Sandford as Big Bill
Hank Mann as a Burglar
Stanley Blystone as Gamine's father
Allan Garcia as President of the Electro Steel Corp.

Production

Director: Charles Chaplin

Producer: Charles Chaplin

Screenwriter: Charles Chaplin

Director of Photography: Rollie Totheroh, Ira Morgan Chaplin began preparing the film in 1934 as his first "talkie", and went as far as writing a dialogue script and experimenting with some sound scenes. However, he soon abandoned these attempts and reverted to a silent format with synchronized sound effects. The dialogue experiments confirmed his long-standing conviction that the universal appeal of the Tramp would be lost if the character ever spoke on screen. Indeed, this film marks the Tramp's last screen appearance, and is arguably the final film of the silent era. Most of the film was shot at "silent speed", 18 frames per second, which when projected at "sound speed", 24 frames per second, makes the slapstick action appear even more frenetic. Available prints of the film now correct this.
Although not a "talkie," Modern Times does include a synchronized sound track featuring foley effects, music, singers, and voices coming from radios, loudspeakers, and a Telescreen in the washroom. Towards the end of the film the Little Tramp's voice is heard for the first time as he ad-libs pseudo-French and Italian gibberish to the tune of Léo Daniderff's popular song, Je cherche après Titine.
The reference to drugs seen in the prison sequence is somewhat daring for the time (since the production code, established in 1930, forbade the depiction of illegal drug use in films); Chaplin had made drug references before in one of his most famous short films Easy Street, released in 1917.

Music

The music score was composed by Chaplin himself, and arranged with the assistance of Alfred Newman. The romance theme was later given lyrics, and became the pop standard "Smile", first recorded by Nat King Cole and later covered by such artists as Michael Jackson, Liberace, Judy Garland, and Madeleine Peyroux.

Nonsense song

ť Se bella giu satore

   Je notre so cafore ť Je notre si cavore

   Je la tu la ti la twah ť La spinash o la bouchon

   Cigaretto Portabello ť Si rakish spaghaletto

   Ti la tu la ti la twah ť Senora pilasina

   Voulez-vous le taximeter? ť Le zionta su la seata

   Tu la tu la tu la wa ť Sa montia si n'amora

   La sontia so gravora ť La zontcha con sora

   Je la possa ti la twah ť Je notre so lamina

   Je notre so cosina ť Je le se tro savita

   Je la tossa vi la twah ť Se motra so la sonta''

   Chi vossa l'otra volta ť Li zoscha si catonta

   Tra la la la la la la''

Reception

Modern Times is often hailed as one of Chaplin's greatest achievements, and it remains one of his most popular films. The iconic depiction of Chaplin working frantically to keep up with an assembly line inspired later comedy routines including Disney's Der Fuehrer's Face, an episode of I Love Lucy titled "Job Switching", and most recently, an episode of Drake & Josh.
This was Chaplin's first overtly political-themed film, and its unflattering portrayal of industrial society generated controversy in some quarters upon its initial release.

Further Information

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