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Charlie Chaplin CKV/CKV1 Komedie, farce |
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In interviews geeft Chaplin aan wat hij ziet als essentiële elementen van komedie. Deze elementen gaan ook nu nog op. In fact, naturalness is the greatest requisite of comedy. It must be real and true to life. I believe in realism absolutely. Real things appeal to the people far quicker than the grotesque. My comedy is actual life, with the slightest exaggeration, you might say, to bring out what it might be under certain circumstances. (Victor Eubank, 1915. Motion picture Magazine, Maart 1915, pp. 75-77.) I endeavour to put nothing in my farces which is not a burlesque on something in real life. No matter how senseless a thing may seem on the screen, I think that if it is studied carefully it can be traced back to life, and is probably an everyday occurrence which the would-be critic of the farce had never thought to be a bit funny. (Mary E. Porter, 1915. Picture-Play Weekly 1 (24 april 1915: pp. 1-4.) My
clowning's realistic, that's why it doesn't go out of date. When I dip my
fingers in a fingerbowl and wipe them on an old man's beard, I do it as if
it were normal behaviour. So they still laugh at me. ….shooting
the film (The Countess HC), whenever I'd see somebody trying to be funny,
I'd stop them. Marlon Brando
is so real, so humorous without any sense of humor. Fascinating. I
wouldn't have had Brando of he thought he was funny!
And because every scene is played with absolute sincerity, the
picture is as funny as anything I've ever tried to make. I
think the secret of the Tramp was that people recognised the humanity of
him. And human beings are very
funny, especially when placed in an embarrassing situation. I saw a scene
on television I thought was very funny. There was Kennedy, the one that's
senator, and he was in a crowd speaking - "I'm very glad that you're
all glad to see me, and I want to tell you to vote for so-and-so."
and all the people behind him were pulling his shirt out of his pants. He
didn't even turn, but he was stuffing it back in again. that was funny. So
human. they want a souvenir. He's not going to leave his shirt out, and
yet he doesn't want to make a big fuss.
One
cannot do humour without a great sympathy for one's fellow man. As the
Tramp I think I endeared myself through his terrific humility - the
humility which I am sure is a universal thing - of somebody without money.
Perhaps because of my early environment, the comedy in tragedy has always been second nature to me. Cruelty, for example, is an integral part of comedy. We laugh at it in order not to weep. In a film called The Floorwalker a tremulous old man was going along like this and I just pick up one of these little zithers lying on a counter and say, "Try it sir," hold it up so his shaking hands strum on the strings. Cruel. And they roared. 144. (Francis Wyndham 1967) 1. Lees de uitspraken van Chaplin en haal er vier elementen uit.
2. Kijk naar de scène van de bokswedstrijd en ga na welke van de vier elementen in de scène te herkennen zijn. 3. Op de tentoonstelling kun je veel heel vroege filmpjes van Chaplin bekijken. Beschrijf een van die filmpjes als filmcriticus en gebruik je kennis van de essentie van komedie /farce om een oordeel te geven over het komisch gehalte van de film.
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© Roy Export Company, courtesy NBC Photographie, Paris DE DIGITALE SCHOOL. Samenstelling in samenwerking met Kunsthal Rotterdam als voorbereiding op tentoonstelling Charlie Chaplin. 29-04-2010 H Coppens/H Baggen |
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