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Article: Farce as reality: a 1930s vision of the future stuns Lindsey Collen with the shock of the new.(Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times )(Column)
- Article from:
- New Internationalist
- Article date:
- November 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 New Internationalist Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The film club that Ram and I are in, not at all a highbrow one, varies its choice of monthly film so that members get to watch and discuss newish films with a difference and also old classics. The old classics vary--from serious stuff like Fellini's Julietta of the Spirits that, incidentally, everybody loved, to the less serious. Which is how Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times came up. We thought it was going to show us 'modern times' way back then in 1936. And we thought it would still be very funny even if dated. Everyone loves the absurdity of this kind of slick farce.
Then, when it came to the discussion afterwards, out on the big open verandah over a glass of ...