After getting his start as a vaudeville performer, Charlie Chaplin turned his sights toward filmmaking during the silent era, effectively becoming one of the first "movie stars" in cinematic history. But his contribution to what would become the star system wasn't the only thing Chaplin did to change the film industry. In fact, in this video essay Darren Foley of Must See Films explores how the London-born actor and director influenced the very fiber of cinema by managing to infuse heart into his iconic form of comedy. Silent era comedies were full of prat falls, sight gags, and the classic "slipping on a banana peel" schtick. Cinema icons Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd built their careers upon this slapstick form of comedy, but where Chaplin differs from his fellow comedians is how his brand of comedy affected audiences on a psychological level. There are many different theories of humor from philosophers like Sigmund Freud and Mikhail Bakhtin, but the one that seems to make the most sense within the context of silent era slapstick comedy is that of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes' "superiority theory" (which also traces back to Plato and Aristotle). It suggests that humans take delight in other people's misfortunes as a way to feel superior—giggling via schadenfreude, as it were. We laugh at the muscle-bound dude who slips and falls in front of his date, because he's big and we're not. We laugh at the bumbling crooked cop who accidentally cuffs himself to a radiator, because...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - 5 days ago