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Subversive Comedy

Buster Keaton in "Cops."

For our first class, we watched Charlie Chaplin's "Easy Street" and Buster Keaton's "Cops." Both are silent films, and some students thought the movies seemed to move very quickly, sometimes too fast to really figure out what was going on. Interesting! It can take a while to get used to the way a silent film presents all its information visually. We're so used to being told and shown what's happening at the same time that you have to learn to watch a silent film in a different way. From here on out, in any case, all the films this semester are "talkies."

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.

Comedy Seminar: First Day

Some good discussions in my first class with the comedy seminar. Amazing that most of the students said they'd already seen at least one silent film (not counting The Artist). Lots of laughter from the class during Buster Keaton's Cops and Charlie Chaplin's Easy Street. One student said she generally enjoys black-and-white films more than color ones, which is rare (and nice) to hear these days.