English Movies Appreciation----- Modern Times

Modern Times

一、Background & Genres

Modern times is a very outstanding work of Charles Chaplin.It is because that the film beyond the purely by his personal characteristics as a selling point of the tragic theme of works, and instead reflects the society some important problems. This is an American politician was thought to have communist red propensity risk works.

Modern Times is a comedy, romance,silent-film which produced in 1936 by Charles Chaplin. The story was set in the 1930s during the Great Depression era大萧条时期. In this period, thousands of people lost their works and began to hunting for jobs in order to make a change for their bad living conditions. As hundreds of machine replaced workers’labor, more and more people began to be subordinated by machines. People were treated as beasts.People had to work all day without having a break.A nd just in this background, in the despair of people, the movie “Modern Times” was on. This movie criticized the cruelty and cold of the capitalist who spared no effort to exploit workers. It not only brought laughter to people, but also made people thought more deeply about the influence that the industrialization brought to us.Perhaps because of this reason, this comedy film won a huge success at that time.

“Modern Times”is such a wonderful movie that reflected the reality at the Industrial Age in a comedic way. It criticized the cruelty and cold of the capitalist who spared no effort to exploit workers. Meanwhile, the movie also glorifies the struggle of the poor. From this angle, this movie is a meaningful work. (“摩登时代”就是这样一个精彩的电影,反映在工业时代的现实在喜剧的方式。它批评了残忍和冷的资本家剥削员工不遗余力。与此同时,电影也美化了奋斗的穷人。从这个角度看,这部电影是一个有意义的工作。）

二、Narrative

The film“modern times”is a description of man and machine conflict. Background was the American industry because of the diversion of machine and fire workers unemployment caused tide.And the character, the tragedy of the times is the shire representatives.(Charles Chaplin in Modern Times) (影片《摩登时代》描写的是人和机器的冲突。背景是当时的美国工业因为转用机器而大量解雇工人所造成的失业浪潮，而主角夏尔洛是这个时代的悲剧代表人物。)

The story takes place in the nineteen twenties American economic depression, worker Charlie worked in a factory, mad, get into a mental hospital, all of this is with the economic crisis brought the crisis of survival are closely linked.However, in

difficult life,the scene that Charlie and the gamin helpde each other when both were in humble circumstances is warm and fulled of humanity. At the end of the film is a common "dawn", represents the general model of Hollywood, and is regarded as a classic by Chinese early films. This is last silent film of Chaplin, he feels that the world economic crisis bring the pain to the unemployed workers,and then decided to use figurative language of cinema to cry. In 1935, the film has entered the sound era. But Chaplin think that using a funny and exaggerated body language can be far better than dialogue.Hence , he only put soundtrack and a little sound in the film .The pungent satire of the movie reveals the harsh reality that capitalists oppressed the workers and pressed out their last sweat.Chaplin displayed the life portrait which on behalf of the lot of millions of unemployed with his superb technique.(故事发生在20世纪30年代美国经济萧条时期，工人查理在工厂干活、发疯、进入精神病院，这一切都是与当时的经济危机给人们带来的生存危机有着密切的联系。而在艰难的生活中，查理和孤女相濡以沫，场面温馨感人焕发着人性的光辉。影片的结尾则是常见的“黎明曙光”，代表了好莱坞的一般模式，更被中国早期影片奉为经典。本片是卓别林最后一部无声影片，他有感于世界经济危机给失业工人带来的痛苦，决定用电影的形象语言来呐喊。1935年，电影已进入有声时代，可卓别林认为，用滑稽夸张的肢体语言，要远胜于对白，于是他只在片中加入配乐和少许音响就上映了。影片辛辣犀利的讽刺，揭示出工人遭受资本家欺压，榨尽他们最后血汗的严酷现实，招致国际资本势力的群起反击。卓别林以其高超的表现手法向世人展示了一幅代表千百万失业者遭遇的生活画像。)

In the film comedy technique and visual means to have Chaplin unique ingenuity. The theme is more prominent, the industrial period of starting the United States around the United States labor people's life tragedy unfolds a witty satire.（片中喜剧手法和视觉手段都有着卓别林独特匠心的痕迹。而其主题则更为突出，围绕美国当年工业起步时期美国劳苦人民的生活悲剧展开了诙谐的讽刺.)

三、Character and Performance

And the character, the tragedy of the times is the shire representatives：He took the line in transmission speeds up unceasingly, he was insane, he was involved in the huge machine in gear, was faulty eating machine in his grief panic in the face doesn't live fan......These images are all reflected the fear and strike brought the machine age.Finally, Charlot is out of work, he joined the find work in the great flood; even inadvertently led demonstrations of the masses, but finally still can not change his fate.Not only for a living to worry about the best local prison. So in order to jail, Charlot at the initiative of the rap.But get the opposite of what one wants, not go to