**This article includes spoilers for the movie Modern Times
Movies have been there since 1888 when Louis Le Prince directed Roundhay Garden Scene. Every single movie that was made since the past is built based on six different approaches. Those approaches are the ideology, history, national cinema, auteur, genre, and formalism. Modern Times, directed by Charles Chaplin in 1936, is a feature film that entails the journey of a tramp, played by Charles Chaplin, who meets a gamine, played by Paulette Goddard, and takes us through several social economic problems that people faced after World War two and during the Great Depression and the industrial revolution era. This current paper will study the ideological approach, formalism approach, and auteur approach of Modern Times.
Every movie has its own ideology that is presented either implicitly, neutrally, or explicitly. In Modern Times Chaplin focuses on capitalism and industrialization. In his movie, Chaplin proves that machines and money are controlling people, since he believes that humans should not convey the tempo of a machine, but a machine should serve humans’ needs (Eggert, 2008). Moreover, he shows how depressed people are because of the unemployment that the industrialization has caused. The ideology of industrialization is shown through the scene were the workers are replaced with sheep. This shows modern slavery and how people are slaves for the capitalist system. In addition to that, a food machine, that will increase the productivity of workers, was shown in the film to prove that people are working in order to convey the tempo of the machines. For instance, the tramp was seen being fed by a machine so he can eat and work at the same time. This is related to capitalism, since people only care for work and productivity and not for the relief and comfort of other people. People in Modern Times are divided in to proletariat and bourgeois. For instance, the tramp and the gamine represent the proletariats, while the factory’s manufacturer represents the bourgeois people who own factories and machines. Furthermore, Chaplin focused on people stealing food in order to show poverty.
When it comes to the auteur’s approach Charles Chaplin in Modern Times had full control over his production, since he was the director, screenwriter, music composer, producer, and main actor. In addition to that, Chaplin has chosen comedy as a tool to present several tragic social problems that people faced at the time of Modern Times. This means that Chaplin delivered several social and economic ideologies through his two funny main characters which he called “partners in crime” (as cited in Eggert, 2008).Thus, he introduces people to capitalism, industrialization, and modern slavery through making them laugh, but also think about what just happened. Therefore, Chaplin is distinguished from other directors and labeled as auteur when it comes to using genres as tools to convey the ideologies of his films.
When it comes to the formalism approach, Chaplin uses the mise en scene elements to deliver the creative content of his film. For instance, most of his film’s shots were long shots and closeups were not used. This is related to Chaplin’s theatrical background. Chaplin uses long shots to show the audience the conflicts of large number of people and not only the conflicts of one specific person. For example, in the scene where the gamine appears stealing bananas and distributing bananas to other kids Chaplin shows, using long shot, the audience how people other than the gamine do not have food to eat. Another long shot seen in Modern Times is the last shot where the tramp and the gamine leave everything behind and continue their unknown journey holding hands. In addition to that, props played a major role in this film. For example, machines had very important role in this film, since it talks about industrialization and how machines’ productivity controlled workers and turned them into slaves. Another prop that delivered the ideology of communism is the flag that the tramp holds and goes to jail because of it. Moreover, Chaplin showed the public the different social classes through the actors and actresses’ outfits. This is proved by the gamine’s ripped dress and the very elegant dress that the woman, who calls the police, was wearing. Furthermore, sound effects were implied to give a meaning for the silence of the film.
Finally, Chaplin reflects the routine of people in the 30s through the form and content of his film Modern Times. Chaplin achieved a breakthrough in the way he delivered his content. He had his own tools that made him produce an artistic and successful film. Although Modern Times is made in the late 30s, yet it holds deep ideologies that people are still facing until now. As noted, the ideology, auteur, and formalism approaches are all related and they all correlate to each other.
References
Bradshaw, N. (2008, July 28). Youssef Chahine: an appreciation. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/jul/28/youssef.chahine.
Eggert, B. (1936, February 6). Modern Times. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://deepfocusreview.com/definitives/modern-times/.
Kumar, A. (2018, September 26). Cairo Station [1958] – The Struggles against Sexual Repression and Social Oppression. Retrieved December 19, 2019, from https://www.highonfilms.com/cairo-station-sexual-repression/.