Chaplin, (Sir) Charles (Spencer) - Louis Zukofsky
LOUIS ZUKOFSKY
A long time ago, Charlie [Chaplin] achieved a perspicuity of style, or a readiness for being imparted…. Charlie had let go in a make-up and dance raising American acting to a world position, soon to offer comparisons with the histrionic poetry of the Japanese Noh.
There were differences. Instead of allowing him to say in concise Japanese verse, 'I am going on a journey down the road, it will lead me past' etc., and poising him graciously on the property, celluloid permitted him only movement and silence. The result was the composition of action on the screen: his back ambled off into the open. Drama was brought into the actual air. (p. 51)
Charlie's devices and "types" live with material thoughtfulness and thus historical meaning. It was some years ago that people began to see satire in Charlie, as distinguished from comedy to which rhetorics have tagged one definition or another and decided it ends well…. Charlie the actor never...
[The entire page is 878 words long]
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