I <3 Charlie Chaplin. Here is one of my favourite scenes in all of film:
[quote]I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white.
We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls -- has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people , will return to the people and so long as men die, liberty will never perish. . .[/quote]
Last year it was revealed that Chaplin may have been born in a Roma travelling people camp. Only recently, some files have been revealed that the MI5 investigated Chaplin on behalf of the FBI who considered him a communist sympathizer. Chaplin was kicked out of America in the 1950s during the red scare and lived out the rest of his life in Switzerland.
In a few weeks I'm teaching Modern Times (1936), one of the best films ever made. It will be a treat. Any other Chaplin fans on babble?