Capo
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Post by Capo on Jul 7, 2008 17:12:40 GMT
The Kid Charles Chaplin 1921 | USA A tramp happens upon an abandoned baby, and brings it up as his son. "A film with a laugh - and perhaps, a tear", so the opening title claims. Chaplin was often guilty of applying his pathos on thickly and sweetly, but there remains something irresistible about this, not least due to Jackie Coogan's performance as the title character, who compliments Chaplin's bumbling, carefree but loving tramp with a charm rarely matched by a young actor since. Two sequences stand out: that in which Chaplin finds himself fighting the tough neighbourhood bully, and the climactic dream sequence, which is at once an insightful dissection of the human condition and a wonderfully realised idea.
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Post by Mike Sullivan on Jul 7, 2008 17:28:38 GMT
Agreed, Capo. Chaplin, perhaps just as well as Speilberg, understood the way to really use pathos in his films to create an emotional bond.
"The Kid" was easily the most ambitious of Chaplin's earlier films, signaling the way and methods he would use in later films like "The Gold Rush", or "City Lights". Methodical, exacting, perfection. I think David Thomson called him "Kubrick before Kubrick. And Kubrick didn't use his own money".
One of Chaplin's fully realized masterpieces.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Jul 7, 2008 17:30:43 GMT
Yeah, Bordwell says that in Richard Schickel's documentary, Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chapin, which I just watched the other day.
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Post by Mike Sullivan on Jul 7, 2008 18:00:50 GMT
There ya go. The circumstances of this film's editing is also interesting.
I can imagine Chaplin in "Gigi" singing "Thank Heavens for Little Girls".
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