About the movie
Charles Chaplin needs no introduction. I love.
"Limelight" is stage lighting at that time (before light bulbs became popular). It means "fame".
It has been 71 years since the film was first released (70 years in Japan) and 50 years since it was revived in Japan. Naturally black and white. However, it is a "talkie".
I heard that Chaplin played the violin very well, but I don't know if the playing in the film was actually his.
The only feature films that Chaplin directed after this appear to be The King of New York (1957) and The Countess (1967).
About the control
The movement is top notch. Pantomime is great. I think that this movement and gag will be received even in Japan today. Do young Japanese comedians watch Chaplin? There were many movements that reminded me of Japanese skits.
There was also a movement like "Moonwalk", and I imagined that Michael Jackson was also watching.
And there is also Chaplin's song, which is unique to talkies. Since this is in English, I can only understand "rhyming". It's not a "gag" for me who can't understand English. Even just reading the subtitles for lines other than the song, I felt Chaplin's sense.
Chaplin noted
By the time Circus was released, talkies were being introduced in Hollywood. However, Chaplin took a negative stance on talkies, believing that they detracted from the art of silent films. Also, Chaplin hesitated to change the formula that had brought him success, fearing that by inserting words into Little Drifter, he would lose the international appeal and universality of pantomime as a universal language. (Wiki)
I agree that pantomime is a "universal language" because it is "in the same cultural sphere". increase. At the very least, the culture should be such that one can easily imagine what kind of life a British man with a bowler hat, baggy stilettos, a mustache and a stick would live in the early 20th century. Post-war Japan will be just fine. I don't know how young people look at it.
A comedian who is a friend of the main character Calvero and has lost both of his hands. He can eat with his feet and can do anything. Even Japanese people think it's dirty to eat with your feet. But for British people, feet are "pubic area". It's embarrassing to show people your bare feet, so I don't know how you say it in English, but I think it means "how shameless".
There were some other things that were rooted in the historical background and culture. I think there are cultural differences that Japanese people don't understand or overlook. Although saying the lines makes it somewhat clearer.
About the story (spoiler alert)
Calvero was a popular person who was said to be the king of clowns, but he couldn't stop laughing and ran away with alcohol. It's close. Terry is a young dancer who, for psychological reasons, believes he has a foot problem, and when he becomes unable to dance, he commits suicide. Calvero, who lived in the same apartment, happens to help him.
While Terry becomes a successful dancer, Calvero remains depressed. Calvero leaves his apartment to be a busker, but Terry finds him and joins Calvero on stage. The collaboration of classical ballet and the clown must have been thought of by Chaplin. I thought it was great. The famous "Terry's Theme" is played on this stage.
Terry's audition, Calvero's bargaining with promoters and managers, etc. make me think that I don't have the "power to live". But it has been robbed by modern Western culture, and instead of ``commons'' such as land and water, the power of cultivating land, building houses, and acquiring water has always been replaced by modern Western culture. People have it (of course, some people don't have it). In other words, modern Westerners have gained a lot in return for losing.
Calvero dreams of his old fame and audience acclaim. Terry loves Calvero and wants to make her dream come true. She puts her on the same stage as herself and even prepares her laughter (Sakura). Terry doesn't believe Calvero when she prepares Sakura. Terry is the same as her first love young man who said, "Why do you like such an old man?" Terry probably thought that the reason why Calvero's performance stopped being accepted was not because Calvero was "old", but because "the world has changed."
As the times change, so does the point of laughter. More and more new comedians come out and do new things, and the old tricks get bored and forgotten. But it's not the "age" that makes art old. It is the consciousness of the audience that seeks new things. It's a consciousness that it's natural to throw away gei as well as things. And it is also the way of life (values) of each audience member. It is a value that "I must be progressing" today than yesterday. Some might call it ambition. When you are young, you may be “better” today than you were yesterday. Therefore, those who are not ambitious and who do not progress are accused of being lazy and depraved. It is clear that old people are more experienced than young people. Some people are very knowledgeable. But that doesn't mean you can do tomorrow what you can't do today. Rather, every day is filled with fear that "I might not be able to do what I can do today" tomorrow. This is what I feel every day. I finally realized it when I was in that position (of course, I think there are many old people who don't think so). The old man is not a "becoming new". For young people, old people are nothing more than "old (should be discarded) selves." I don't think Calvero could have been "better than yesterday" for Terry.
Calvero's final performance will be a "big hit". I don't know if it's Terry's Sakura laugh. Calvero will also complete the encore with a performance that stretches his body. This damaged his spine and caused him to have a heart attack, and he died lying on the sofa in the wings watching Terry's ballet.
Impressions
Was Calvero's performance really well received? Was Calvero unaware of the "terry preparation"? Calvero's feelings for Terry, did he love her as a woman, not as a friendship or a daughter? Did Terry's feelings for Calvero love him as a man, not for her benefactor or someone like her father?
I don't know. It seems that I am insensitive to such feelings. It's something that everyone who sees it feels. There are probably countless sentences about this movie. Chaplin himself may have something to say.
Calvero is definitely Chaplin himself. He was around 63 years old at the time. It's not the Chaplin of his youth who was acclaimed for his little mustache hat of the silent film era. The suspicion about talkies seems to have arisen from pride in one's art and antipathy to the changing times. Accepting a talkie and showing his true face for the first time, this work seems to be a manifestation of Chaplin's determination. The applause that Calvero received was probably what Chaplin wanted. That wish may have been fulfilled, or it may have been an illusion. No, he may have thought that the applause that Chaplin received when he was young and the fame that Chaplin had at that time were nothing more than "idol" (in fact, he was betrayed by America). . Real or not, I think Calvero's look at Terry in his death throes was "real."
Is it necessary to distinguish between feelings for her father and feelings for her daughter and "love"? Is it possible to distinguish between male-female friendship and male-female love? Whether or not there is a "physical relationship" may be an "objective criterion", but it is not an essential distinction. But it can't be reduced to "subjective" either. I think that the relationship between people is in the place "beyond the host and the guest". Perhaps that was the world (reality) that Chaplin saw through Calvero.
