Modern Times (1936), directed by Charlie Chaplin

Résumé du document

First, I will talk about the historical context of the film. Chaplin goes around the world during sixteen months. When he comes back to Hollywood, in 1932, he observes the economic and social results of the Great Depression, which made, in two years, seven million unemployed in the US.

Indeed, in 1929, the United States is floundered in a serious economic depression, which expands to the rest of the world. Many banks and factories go bankrupt and therefore cause the rise of the unemployment. The American economy picks up again progressively from 1933 with an economical and social program (the New Deal), put in place by Roosevelt (the president).

Charlie Chaplin has been sensitive to this crisis (he comes from a poor family). However, the description of the unemployment and the poverty is not synchronized with the date of the production (1934-1935). The movie comes out in the world, in 1936. And so, at this time, the United States is no more really in depression.

Extraits

[...] It arrests people who steal for example, but it does not succeed in restoring the order and the calm in the city. The city stays a dangerous place: the gamin's father has been killed. So, the city is dangerous since you could be killed. The people and the police are opposed and confront one another. People aren't heard, and nobody help and understand them. It's the opposite that happened: they are punished for their actions. They are put aside, abandoned, marginalized. [...]

[...] As soon as the film came out, Chaplin was accused of communism, but he is not a communist, he only likes its values: humanity, generosity . United States was against the communism. Moreover, in Germany, this film among others directed by Chaplin, was forbidden by the censure. He has also been accused of having copies, imitated nous la liberté" directed by René Clair. In Modern Times, we have two stories happening at the same time, but at a given moment, they meet up. [...]

[...] we feel better than outside (in the city), and there is food. We are less in danger there than outside. Besides, in jail, we do not see social status of everyone. So, there is not difference; people have the same status, are in the same "level". We can't say if this one is poor, or rich . But, in the city, people dream of having a better life. Indeed, at a given moment, the Tramp and the gamin dream that they have a luxurious home, and that they have unlimited food. [...]

[...] So, in the city, there is a certain solidarity between the poor. They are accomplices. They go on strike together, they eat together, they take part in riots together . But, here, we can't consider the robbery as a sin. Indeed, people are forced to steal to survive. They haven't got a job, so they haven't got money, so they haven't got something to eat, so they steal. We can't bear a grudge against them. What would we have done in their place? [...]

[...] A gang of burglars are there (one of them worked with the Tramp in the factory), but they only want to eat. The next morning, the Tramp is arrested by the police, and finds himself in jail once again. Ten days later, he is released, and the gamin is there to announce to him that she has found a home for them; it is a dilapidated home. The next morning, the Tramp reads in the newspaper that factories reopen. He is very happy, and he runs to the factory. [...]