Century Old Realism

I guess Chaplin's Essanay Comedies: Vol. 3 are only 90 years old now, since they were all filmed around 1915. Still, that's a long time ago. Somehow, I can cope with the 30's, that's practical modern. But the teens... Look at it this way, the Civil War was a recent for them as WWII is for us.

These are not Chaplin's best works - He wasn't given much creative freedom and he left after a year or so. Two of the films in this collection, Police and Triple Threat were assembled from leftover footage after he'd left the studio. In A Burlesque of Carmen, he plays the last scene straight, stabbing Carmen and himself in a fit of jealousy - not played all that well either. Then, he and Carmen get up, he grins, and stabs Carmen again, showing the audience that it's a collapsible knife. Interesting artistic choice.

Most disturbing were the recurring scenes of a 10-cent doss house run by a greasy Jew and inhabited by the scum of the earth. Almost 100 years later, these play as almost social realism. We may laugh, but it makes us think...