MODERN TIMES

Re-watched Chaplin's MODERN TIMES (1936).

Funnier this time around: The Tramp saying, "We'll get a home even if I have to work for it." And that makes him more sensible than many in our modern times.
And work he does. From one job to the next: assembly line worker, night watchman, ship builder, mechanic's assistant, and waiter.

Modern times = hard times.
If that was modern then, we're ... um, still modern.

What struck me more this time: a significantly bittersweet moment when the Tramp opens his mouth to sing for his supper. Aside from this being his last "silent" film, it's Chaplin's capitulation to the talkies - begrudgingly it seems, because what he sings is verbally unintelligible, but wholly delightful and comprehensible in pantomime. The advent of talkies is like the Towel of Babel moment in cinema. From one universal language of images, sound dialogue fractured them into nationalities. Note too the sense that performing (individuality, artistry)- out of the many he tries out in the film - is the job that satisfies the Tramp well.