The Gold Rush

The Gold Rush is a great example of just how important film restoration is. I'd seen this Charlie Chaplin silent masterpiece a few times, but I don't think I ever really saw it until this week, when I watched a newly restored print at Enzian theater. Of course the film looks better than it has since it opened in 1925, but there was something else going on, something a little mysterious. The themes were somehow clearer, the characters more vivid, the performances richer (especially Chaplin's amazing one) and the connections among the various scenes stronger.  I've always loved parts of this film, including the famous scene in which a starving Charlie eats a shoe (twirling the laces like spaghetti) and the also-famous scene in which he sticks forks into two dinner rolls and makes them dance. Now I finally get why it's considered one of his finest.