Untitled Document
 Many
of you may not know who Charlie Chaplin is. He was one of the greatest
and widely loved movie stars
in the world. From Easy Street (1917) to Modern Times (1936), he made
many of the funniest and most popular films of his time. He was best
known for his character Little Tramp. The
Little Tramp is a lovely man in a raggedy suit with cane. You
probably have seen him before. This week, let's meet the most famous
actor Charlie Chaplin!
Charlie Chaplin was born in London on April 16, 1889. His birth name
was Charles Spencer Chaplin. His father died when he was 12 years
old. His mother was an unsuccessful music hall singer. She had
to bring up Charles and his
older brother Sydney alone. According to Chaplin's own
biography, they suffered
periods of extreme poverty. Eventually, his mother declined into permanent mental breakdown. And the
two boys spent a long time in orphanages.
Chaplin first visited America with a theater company in 1907. Appearing
as "Billy" in the play Sherlock Holmes, the young Chaplin
toured the country twice. On his second tour, he met Mack Sennett
and was signed to Keystone Studios to act in films.
In 1914, Chaplin made his first film called Making a Living. That
same year, he made 34 more short films, including Caught in a Cabaret,
Caught in the Rain, The Face on the Bar-Room Floor, and His Trysting
Place. All of them were silent short films. And Chaplin
did excellent physical comedy in those
films. Chaplin's slapstick acrobatics made him very
famous. And the subtleties of his acting made him great.
Soon Chaplin became famous in Hollywood. When making films, he demanded that the entire
cast work together in every
performance. Without this
unity, he could not express
the subtlety of character that
was very important to him. Chaplin knew that a successful film was
not simply about the star but about everyone on the screen.
 Chaplin
typically made his story
in front of the camera with
only a basic framework of a script. He shot and printed
hundreds of takes when making a movie.
This method cost him a lot. But
it provided lively footage. And when he didn't
like an actor's acting, he changed the actor and started over with
someone new. Chaplin's shooting method was very hard for actors. But
they always went along because they knew they were working for a master.
Chaplin is of the silent movie era. But we see his achievements carried through
in the films of today. With the birth of the feature-length talkies, the need for more
subtle acting became clear. To maintain the audience's attention throughout
a six-reel film, an actor needed to move beyond constant slapstick.
Chaplin had demanded this depth long before anyone else. His love
and concern for the processes of acting and directing made his films
great. It also led the way to a new, more advanced cinema. |
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