She's Just A Random Personality...

Im sure everyone has heard of Charlie Chaplin! He was one of the greatest and widely loved silent movie stars. From “Easy Street” (1917) to “Modern Times” (1936), he made many of the funniest and most popular films of his time. Ive often wondered how could mime be such a hit with audiences around the world. Without words, we find many a times, miscommunication occurs. How did Charlie Chaplin make sure that people got his intended message? His silent movies were so successful because he was such a perfectionist and he understood that without words, every object, it's placement and any kind of movement would be a focal point for viewers. Hence, he was very particular about everything that was going to be on screen. One would think that it was overdramatic acting that exaggerated emotions that helped but contrary to that, Chaplin found opportunities to control the environment enough to allow subtlety to come through.



In this part of one of Chaplin's movies, though there are words being said, it's not them saying it but a narrator. We tend to watch the characters more closely and let the words just flow over us. We see the huge importance of the background music. It changes according to the situation in the film. It's pace, tone and pitch all vary with different scenes. The use of such Paralinguistics draw us in further into the movie. Every single movement and expression of the characters' is also closely scrutinised by us when we watch it. And we realise there's never too many things going on in one frame allowing us to digest everything chaplin is trying to get across in that particular scene more effectively. i feel that this scene i have put up appeals more to one's logic (logos) instead of the usual emotion-directed pieces (pathos), which is why we can understand that there's some kind of enmity between the workers and the actions they do makes us laugh because we get that the way they fight is non-violent and is done to irritate one another.

I really liked this scene because i found it rather hilarious. And i'm glad i have the ability to make sense of it all even without words to help me.

posted by RanPer @ 8:46 AM