Chaplin.

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I think if you haven't seen a ton of silent films, you probably haven't readjusted your expectations for what's a "3-dimensional character." The nature of the art form -- and I judge it to be a practically DIFFERENT one from talkies -- dictates a totally different approach. Even a stark silent drama like "Greed" employs *types*, sort of the cinema equivalents of Dickens characters.

That said, jeezus, City Lights isn't interesting compared to what? Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back? I don't care for Chaplin's late sentimentality (CL and Modern Times are the last 2 times he played the Tramp, unless Great Dictator counts -- and the schmaltz got even worse in his sound films), but the slapstick is consistently great, and as Stuart Klawans wrote in The Nation recently, he said as much about what it is to be poor as any great artist.

Try his Essanay and Mutual shorts to see the more knockabout style.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 16:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh yeah -- the template for Chaplin's features is very much Victorian melodrama. If that bugs you sufficiently, I guess he's not for you (and you'll really hate DW Griffith). Maybe that's what you find more "alien" than Keaton, but it was likely the dominant popular dramatic style that audiences in the teens and '20s knew their whole lives.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link

twelve years pass...

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7TKvVYIjPhAd1sY0/giphy.gif

― circa1916, Saturday, 14 January 2017 17:20 (seven years ago) link

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