Tag: Charlie Chaplin
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Charlie Chaplin, “The Eel”
In going through Chaplin’s The Adventurer for a project I’m working on, I wound up staring at a shot that usually goes by in a couple of seconds. It appears onscreen three times, and only one element is really supposed to register with our eyes and brains. What caught my eye this time was everything…
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Not One, But TWO “Female Chaplins”
I’ve seen Mabel Normand referred to as being a female Chaplin, in articles from the silent era and in contemporary references. I was intrigued to find similar analogies drawn between Mr. Chaplin and Alice Howell during the silent film era, and it’s appropriate for both comediennes. While neither approached Chaplin’s comedic and filmmaking genius, they…
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Arbuckle-Spotting, or: What Emma Clifton and I Saw Last Night
The things you see during a silent film show when you’re the one who’s closest to the screen! As a film accompanist, I’m constantly scanning the frame for information while I’m playing. Impending story developments can be introduced in different areas of a shot while other action is happening in the foreground, and I like…
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“Jimmy Aubrey Comedy” is Not Always an Oxymoron
Worries and Wobbles (1917) has what might appear to be three strikes against it on the surface: “Jimmy Aubrey comedy”, “directed by Larry Semon” and that it’s a rather blatant knock-off of Chaplin’s One A.M.. The first of these is also usually an oxymoron. I can tell you that, like any of the very few…
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Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Perez, and a Pair of Drowning Ladies
There was a lot of borrowing and sharing of material in the days of silent comedy shorts, a tradition that grew out of vaudeville and circus. In the milieu of live comedy performance, there were certain routines that were a particular comedian’s property, to be sure, but there were many routines that everyone knew and…
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Marcel Perez…or “Marvel” Perez?
Buster Keaton’s Idea of “Impossible Gags” Take on ‘Popeye’ Proportions In the Tweedledum/Twede Comedy Shorts Stylistically, there are two things about the American films of Marcel Perez that make them stand apart from the work of all the other slapstick comedians of the silent era. One of them I can’t yet put my finger on.…
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Working with People Who Haven’t Been Dead for 60 Years
“Have you ever scored any new films, like regular movies, not silent ones?” It’s a question I get asked by reporters and people I meet socially. The answer usually surprises people. It’s “Nope.” I do get asked from time to time to score a new silent film, and that’s something I’ll cover in another post.…
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new Chaplin clip deconstructed – “The Immigrant”
I sit about ten feet from the screen when I play for Chaplin’s “The Immigrant” at the Museum of the Moving Image at their education programs. Watching this film in a sharp 35mm print several times every year, I’d started thinking about the shot of the rocking boat in the film’s opening. Not the one…
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video blog posting – riding the rails to Astoria for a Chaplin show
Here’s my latest video blog. Take a ride to and from the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria with me on the N and the R as I head out to play for a school group screening of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant”.
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Nosferatu at MoMA, on Time Inc website
Here’s a cool video profile on me, just posted on the Time Inc. website, and made by Jim Fields. This was shot in the early spring, but I will actually be playing for “Schreck” in December during MoMA’s “Weimar Kino” series. Enjoy! If you wanna see it on the Time Inc. site click here. http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1