Such as the movie in this week's spotlight called Modern Times.
That's what you call irony. Don't try that at home.
Released in 1936, Modern Times was a swan song for Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp character. Although movie sound had been a thing for over half a decade, Chaplin (who wrote and directed the film) insisted on it being a silent film. The logic behind Chaplin's decision was that if Little Tramp spoke in Chaplin's English accented voice, then the Little Tramp would be identified as English and Chaplin didn't want the character linked to any particular nationality or culture. He saw the Little Tramp as a character with broader appeal to the whole world.
Modern Times is not completely a silent film. There is a sound including a music soundtrack that Chaplin composed. (Chaplin may have also prepared the food for the craft services table.) But the acting is silent complete with classic dialogue title cards.
The theme of the movie is what happens to people not in control over their own lives and caught up in the gears of political upheaval, social injustice, urgent modernization and rampant industrialization.
In the latter case, quite literally.
The Little Tramp is working on an assembly line, a wrench in one hand tightening bolts as they pass by on the line.
A brutal plant boss demands more speed and efficiency so the line speeds up and the Tramp is now working with a wrench in both hands tightening bolts.
His arms continue to spasm as if he's still tightening bolts on the line when he takes a break.
The Tramp is subjected to an experimental feeding machine, an automated contraption that can feed a worker with their hands still on the assembly line. No need for lunch breaks.
The feeding machine brutalizes and tortures the Tramp. There are a few bugs to be worked out.
All of this is just too damn much for the Little Tramp as he bugs out in a total mental meltdown and he is committed to a hospital.
Once released from the hospital, life is kind of complicated for the now unemployed Little Tramp.
He accidentally stumbles into a Communist demonstration and is arrested even though he had no idea what was going on.
Life in jail ain't so bad. He's got a cot to sleep on, a roof over his head and 3 square meals a day.
But life in jail is not a sustainable option and the Tramp is released. He encounters a young woman named Ellen stealing bread. To both save the girl and to give him a reason to go back to jail, the Tramp confesses to stealing the bread. But a buttinksy witness tells the cops he didn't do it so no jail for the Tramp.
The Little Tramp will get arrested a few times over the course of the film but usually when he actually doesn't want to be arrested and for stuff he is only accidentally involved in.
The Tramp and Ellen cross paths again and they try to forge something resembling a normal life together. They set up house in a old abandoned run down shack. The pair get jobs at a cafe and club and it looks like life might actually be working out for them.
But the cops come to arrest Ellen on outstanding warrants so Ellen and the Little Tramp make a run for it. Ellen despairs that their struggles are all pointless, but the Tramp reassures her all will be well as they head towards a glorious sunrise, walking down the road towards an uncertain but hopeful future.
It was typical for a Little Tramp film to end with the character walking away from the audience. What was different at the end of Modern Times he was not walking away alone.
Paulette Goddard is a luminescent presence, even when dressed in rags. She can be sweetly demure when she wants to be and fiercely defiant when she needs to be.
Despite being a mostly silent film, Modern Times feels almost... modern. It helps, sadly I suppose, that the things Charlie Chaplin was worried about in 1936 are still distressingly relevant today: the powerlessness of society against the literal and figurative machinery of an upper class growing in wealth and power at the expense of the poor.
Modern Times can be a funny movie with some hilarious physical slapstick comedy but it's humor in service to a serious message which is why Modern Times remains a well regarded movie nearly a century after it was made, in these modern times.
For our next movie weekend...
Cinema Saturday looks at an early 2000's action comedy about a marriage built on a foundation of lies and stuff blows up real good. We'll take a look at a movie called Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Cinema Sunday looks at a 1940's romantic comedy about a marriage built on a foundation of lies. Stuff does NOT blow up real good. We'll take a look at a different movie called Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
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