@deanduncan63Saw Chaplin’s #ModernTimes. It had been a while. Found that I remembered, exactly, every little bit. I’m not so smart; it’s so indelible!
#ModernTimes. CC can be naive or wrong-headed, politically. This time, by design or happy accident, he got it profoundly & perfectly right: …
… commodity fetishization, the alienation of the worker, repressive state apparatuses, authoritarianism & hegemony, by the sweat of thy brow.
#ModernTimes. Does that make the film sound all heavy & forbidding? It wears its wise sophistication so lightly! So many joyful perfections: …
… the assembly line. The mechanized lunch. Amok! The buttons on that lady’s dress. The Red flag! Prison. A dope fiend! …
… Make that a heroic dope fiend. The elegance of that cafeteria caper. Those roller skates! In poverty. Bathing. An idyllic domestic vision …
… Back to the factory. In through the out door. (I’m not the biggest fan of the song/dance.) Bereft, again. The last shot. Smile!
#ModernTimes. After all its ideological sharpness, is the conclusion an idealized misstep, or even betrayal? How ’bout what is, & what might be. So great!