![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Early Chaplin
Jun. 2nd, 2006 09:51 amSwanson does a great impression of Chaplin in Sunset Boulevard. But then everybody in the first half of the 20th century had a Chaplin impression up their sleeve. It's one reason why those early Chaplin movies seem so faded. He toddles, he runs, he falls over. Huh! Anybody could do that!
But watch the other actors on screen with him; they're so klutzy, so puddingy. They over-signal the jokes, they mug at the camera; they're an embarrassment.
This is before the first world war, remember. No-one's at home with the camera yet
Except for Charlie. He's so precise, so swift. Not a gesture is wasted. He zips, he zings, he flies.
But watch the other actors on screen with him; they're so klutzy, so puddingy. They over-signal the jokes, they mug at the camera; they're an embarrassment.
This is before the first world war, remember. No-one's at home with the camera yet
Except for Charlie. He's so precise, so swift. Not a gesture is wasted. He zips, he zings, he flies.
