ET.04 - Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton

Hai Gais.

After watching both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in action. It took me quite a while to decipher these two jokers of the silent era. It wasn't till I made a comparison between modern day actors, then it hit me.

Lettuce start with the face. Comparisons will be based on both films: The Cure and The General. Beginning with The Cure, Charlie Chaplin enters the world of a spa. The the world in a state of equilibrium, being broken in by an event - Chairman Rey, defines how a drunk Charlie Chaplin is the event being broken into the world. Whereas in The General, Buster Keaton is a trainman who works at the lines, the event breaking the state of equilibrium is when his train gets stolen. There's a significant difference between these two actors' faces. Charlie Chaplin's face is usually in a constant state of change of expression. Buster Keaton usually holds a straight face. I remember Rey asking us about whether we prefer Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton?

Here's another thing that sets them apart. Charlie Chaplin has an obvious shuffle in his steps, it is like resembling a clown, which metaphorically, he is. He relies on facial expressions a lot, as well as body gestures. Take for example the rotating doors of the spa. Charlie Chaplin sets the stage ready to make his audience laugh, which is different from Buster Keaton, who DOES NOT purposely sets the stage, he instead goes with the flow which feels  natural. The way Charlie Chaplin walks from left to right indicated he was drunk, clumsy, and disoriented. His first   encounter was the doors, then comes the antagonist. Big man with an injured feet, being toyed around by Charlie Chaplin, which most people might consider 'smooth'. Buster Keaton on the other hand, usually maintains a straight face almost throughout the movie. Even when rescuing his girl from the clutches of the enemy and escaping into the forest, he maintains a constant state of expression, which really appeals to me.

Now how do both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton resemble similar traits? Well for starts, both of them are comedians. Both starts off at a world where everything goes wrong, Charlie for the spa, and Buster for failing to join the army and losing his train. Both meets a girl, loses the girl, and then gets the girl back in the end. Obvious melodrama is portrayed in both films, and good guys always prevail. Both movies end in hilarious moments: Charlie for walking straight into the well, and Buster for saluting many soldiers while kissing his lover.
However, the list for differences go on longer. As I mentioned before, Both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton have different ways to portray their comedy out to the public. Charlie Chaplin always shows SCENES of his intended comedic act, such as the spinning door, tripping over the antagonist, trolling the antagonist and the massage person in the bathroom. A repetitive motive can be detected while seeing the scenes. Buster Keaton however, shows a film which scarily resembles most modern day movies. The story line of The General basically has a motive, a reason to understand how many dots connect in the movie, such as the girl, the train, spying the enemy's hideout, all happen 'unintentionally'. So the natural feel of it gives me a better aesthetic reaction rather than The Cure. Hence, the plot of The General was better than The Cure, just my two cents. And for the random record, Chairman Rey was talking about 2 other comedians which is Jim Carrey and Johnny Depp. Just two random actors came out with. Then, I made a connection, I can conclude that Charlie Chaplin resembles Jim Carrey whereas Buster Keaton resembles Johnny Depp. If you do take a second look, you will see that both their  mirror images do coincide perfectly with one another. Jim Carrey wants his jokes and acts to be noticed by the audience. Johnny Depp seems like he 'does it without even trying'. Which means to say, he does not purposely do it to make the audience laugh, rather its the natural way he does it that makes the act itself funny. So that's how Buster makes most of his actions funny, because the actions itself aren't really funny, but the way he does it naturally and it invokes the laughter in us because of his face, the straight face.

The truth says for itself. I prefer Buster Keaton over Charlie Chaplin. It's because it looks like he does his stuff naturally, thats why its funny. I could point out several scenes. First is when he goes over to his lover's house and the way he leads the kids out of the house. Second is how he cuts the queue repeatedly in order to signup for the war. Third is when he calls his townmates to help chase after The General after it was stolen, and leaves the 'cargo' behind. Fourth is when he gets trapped in the enemy's hideout and rescued the girl, after severing the guard with a blow on his head. Fifth is when he set the bridge on fire, and attempts to jump back onto the train but insteads falls into the river. I could go on and on. Even up till the end he kisses the girl, and waves by all the soldiers who walk by. Giving us an unprepared last laugh. Buster Keaton is a comedian, Charlie Chaplin is a clown.

I love them both all the same. Making people laugh without saying a word in those days were a real skill to master. But all in all, personally I just prefer Buster Keaton over Charlie Chaplin. Preference, that is all.

ET.01 - YOURSELF AS AN AUDIENCE

My first official assignment on Film101. Ta-da.

ET.01 - YOURSELF AS AN AUDIENCE.

As far as I know, I enjoy watching cartoons, movies, and acting performances. On a side note, I do pay a certain amount of attention on noticing details of the movies such as camera angles, effects, and such, which leads me to perform critical thinking. As a Joshua, I do savor critical thinking as food for breakfast. But right now, I hath the call of duty to write down my personal thoughts on the short film - An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge.

The story was basically about a man who was about to be hanged for his crimes. With the ropes and everything at set, the sun was dawning through the mountains. When the camera shifted to a First-Person view of the man who was about to be hanged, I could feel my own heart thumping. It was the same feeling about how I felt facing most school examinations due to the fact I do not study much. Funny but yes, it was kinda like anticipating the end of my own life, tethering at the edge of the plank. Then, it was time. The sergeant stepped off the plank, and down he fell into the river. To be honest I was shocked. Because being me knowing that most hanging would be prisoners choke by the 'hanging' literally. Then I waited to see what happened.. He freed himself from the ropes, which seems much too easy but possible, and started swimming away. The commander ordered his troops to fire at him as he swam as though his life depended on it (literally again). Then I laughed so much, because a shower of bullets firing at him, and not one hit him? And what was the deal with the cannonball that even missed him?... Anyway that was comedy for me. He swam away safely, for me, that was the end of a emotional shift.

Oh, and I forgot. While standing on the plank, he starts to reminiscence. Distant ticking of a clock could be heard, getting closer and louder. He knew he was going to die, and the first things people think of before they die are usually their loved ones.  Critical thinking me immediately says flashbacks are naturally a very powerful element in films. Because they can almost relate to the audience in every possible way. I am a person who flashbacks many times throughout my life. Because I see that every Past I have went through has made the Present possible for my Future. As he went on about the thought of his wife, the embrace, the moment. Then he was brought back to reality when the sergeant took the watch out of his pocket, snapping him out of that 'flashback trance'. 

He got exhausted swimming, so he let himself drift. He begins to see images, spiders, a hairy caterpillar. To me, this somehow symbolizes death. Imagine the show: I Shouldn't Be Alive, but worse. It's like, you cheated death, and yet you are reminded everytime that you shouldn't be alive. I have that effect everytime I see a socket point. Because when I was young, I was too smart for myself. I entered 2 paperclips into a socket point to light up my little experimental circuitry which consists of just one light bulb. Holding it with my bare fingers, I slipped the paperclips into the sockets, and then BOOM!...my entire housing area blacked out. I was in pitch-black darkness, and I asked myself: am I dead?.......As black as...nothing.. I bet you had that 'tensing up' feeling yourself whilst reading that sentence eh? Then, the electricity came back in 20 minutes later. It took me about a good 10 minutes earlier to figure out that I was still alive. I looked at my hands, they were burnt black. So henceforth I was phobic towards glancing at socket points, it reminded me that I really shouldn't be alive on this earth. But by the grace of God I still am.

I was enjoying the reminiscing part, then that feeling disappeared, A big bang from a cannon woke him up from the his trance and he started running away as if something was chasing him. That was funny at first, then my brain was filled with ruriosity. That man was running away from.....nothing?.... I remember a long stretch of trees, he was running through them, occasionally falling. I was utterly confused at that point. I did not understand why. Yes it makes sense that he was trying to escape the soldiers in the beginning, but he was well off and far from them, but why does he continue running even though he was so exhausted? That left me hanging in suspense for a long time. You know that feeling you get when something is happening and you don't have a clue to why it's happening? Yeah that, and it disturbs me a lot not knowing reasons to why things are happening.

Then there was that, he was running into his wife's arms. That moment, where everything didn't matter anymore, just to get to see your loved ones again. That scene invokes a pleasant feeling because of a husband and wife reunion, running into each other's arms, together again. As the moment descended further, the wife's hands caressing up the man's neck, then suddenly, the man looked like he was shot by a bullet from behind. He arched his back and fell to his knees. The whole scene shifted back to the hanging scene. He jerked dead from the rope. I was like, wow. And everybody in the scene were like, "nothing to do here, :walksaway:" kind of thing. So apparently his mind was wandering before the time of his death. I mean, that's exactly what I would do myself. On the brink of death, you have nothing to focus anymore, nothing to think of specifically. I let myself drift  away many times during class sessions, (secret out here), So I do know what it would be like in that man's shoes. But inside me, I applauded towards the building suspense of the entire film, because finally I understood why the man was running blindly and nobody was chasing him, because he was a figment of his own imagination.

As the climax slowly diminished towards the ending, I could see how the process of it diminishing. People were walking away, The camera focusing on the dead hanging man was zooming out. This little occurence, was made into a bigger perspective. All along, we were transcended into the man's thoughts without most of us realizing it. What really impacted me most in this film wasn't about how the suspense was, or how he suddenly died in the end. But more towards knowing life itself that it toys with your mind, so much that it drives you nuts just thinking about it sometimes. And the sad part is, not many people knows it. An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge has opened the doors to my mind once more about how sometimes people are allowed to indulge in their own thoughts, with nobody to restrain you on what you really want to think. In the end, everything that matters till the point of your last breath, is what you view about life's perspective.