Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Cigaretta portabello.



This is Chaplin's first "talkie" film, Modern Times. He doesn't speak throughout the film and we only hear his voice when he performs this song (although it is a recorded version and he is lip synching). He's written the words of the song on his cuffs, which fly off early on in his performance so the words he sings are basically gibberish -- a combination of French and Italian. While watching this film, I was struck by how innocent the characters in films were during this time period. I recommend checking out this movie, if you can find it. It was one of Chaplin's last ones and the female lead ended up being one of his wives. She's a doll. Seriously tough and pretty. Sigh. A good one.