Charles Spencer Chaplin: A Profile

When you think of a tramp or comedy in either silent or talkie films, you think of Charlie Chaplin. He portrayed the homeless hobo to perfection. You could see him lining up in the soup kitchens of the Great Depression period. The whole world was going through an economic meltdown while Chaplin was busy making the term destitute an actual term of endearment. One of the easily recognisable scenes from this period is Chaplin boiling his shoes to eat them. That was a move which made people of those times identify with him and relate to him. People got encouraged to see a poor character that is broke with his pockets turned out, sitting in gutters as the rain poured down; yet being happy. They felt that they could also get through those hard times. The comedy dished out by Chaplin could never be termed either goofy or slapstick. It was portrayal of life in its dark and stark reality and in terms of great adversity. There was not a Chaplin film that was ignored by people. One of the famous quotes of Chaplin goes like this – “A man’s true character comes out when he’s drunk.” Chaplin’s early life was a troubled one. He was born in a poor section of South London. His father ws Charles Chaplin Sr. While his mother was Hannah Chaplin. He was born on 16th April 1889. His father was a singer and his mother was an actress and a dancer. She danced in British musical halls of those times. By the time Chaplin was a toddler, his parents were already estranged. At the age of seven, he was sent to Lambeth Workhouse to take care of payments of some of the family’s debts. His early experiences in life brought out the enactment of the `tramp’ in him in later life. His father passed away with cirrhosis of liver when Chaplin was nine. Later in life, Chaplin said, “To laugh truly, you should be able to take your pain and play with it.” From a young age, Charles Chaplin Jr. Always found the time to follow in the footsteps of his parents; by being a performer on the stage. At the age of nine, he was recruited to become a member of a dancing troupe. He was picking up well as a tap dancer and made his mark by practicing his routines many times during a day. His commitment and hard work helped him to earn money to live by. At thirteen years of age, he was self-sufficient. At the age of fourteen, he played his first acting part on stage as local newspaper boy in `Romance of Cockayne’. It turned out to be a big break for him. He was appreciated for his ability to play a comedy character. He was being noticed as a bright child actor. He also played Billie, the pageboy in Sherlock Holmes dramas. At seventeen, he joined the circus. It was called `Casey’s Circus’ as a dancer. He reached the New World, travelling with this circus troupe. When Chaplin visited the United States of America, Vaudeville was at the peak of its glory. Dancers and singers entertained local communities with their skills and they were in demand. Chaplin was fortunate to do his shows at the Colonial Theatre in New York City. He got good reviews for his acts. He became famous with the role of a drunkard because of its slapstick humour. He spent two years doing such shows. He went back to England in June 1912 and had to face days of depression, once again. Luckily, he did not have to wait for long as he got a chance to go back to New York City in the month of October, that same year. During this visit, he was introduced to the film business with New York City Motion Picture Company. He got a break after that with Keystone Picture Studios and worked out a contract of $150 a week. This meant that Chaplin would not have to struggle, ever again. He began playing the penniless tramp to perfection. He ventured out the next year, in December 2013, to the Western Coast and arrived in Los Angeles. He used the moustache to look a little older. He enjoyed playing that and the drunken clown. He directed a film in 1914 and it was called `Caught in the Rain’. He gets mixed up in a lover’s quarrel and did plenty of slapstick. It was a success. Keystone then depended on him to direct most of his films from then on. One of the greatest compliments Chaplin got in his life was from Walt Disney who said that it was the template of Chaplin’s tramp on which the Mickey Mouse cartoon character got inspiration from. The features of Chaplin’s tramp were everywhere. In the year 1917, Chaplin became a worldwide phenomenon. His films were being played in every country. The First World War was thinning down after the heating up in 1916. USA entered the war in April 1917. Chaplin refused to join the war effort. He hated wars. In 1918, Chaplin made an innovative film that was called `A Dog’s Life’. This ilm opens with the familiar figure of the penniless tramp entering the screen, hungry and desperate, looking for where the next meal would come from. He is followed by a dog whose name is Scraps. This dog is rescued by Chaplin from a dog fight. The dog and the tramp do everything together; they work, look for food and even look for women in tandem. Edna Purviance and his brother Sidney also make their appearance in this film. The timing of Chaplin’s comedy was brilliant in this film. It was hailed as a total work of art by the film critics. Married Life Mildred Harris became Chaplin’s first wife. She was a child star and made her debut when she was only eleven years old. She met Chaplin in 1918 and they dated each other. At first, Chaplin was not serious. When he came to know that she was pregnant with his child, he became concerned and consented to marriage. He did not want a scandal to escalate at this point in his life. The marriage was actually out of fear; not love. There was a miscarriage and the child was lost. He had an unhappy marriage which ended the following year with a settlement from Chaplin’s estate. His unhappy days led to the making of the film, `The Kid’ which turned out to be a masterpiece. It touched upon loss and sadness and the world came to know that Chaplin can even make people cry besides making them laugh. From this moment in his life, all Chaplin’s creations started touching the hearts of people and engaging their minds. When `The Kid’ was released, it became a blockbuster hit, internationally. Chaplin turned into a wealthy man on its account. Thousands of fans flocked to meet him when he stepped out on the streets of England. His next work was a romantic film called `A Woman of Paris’. He decided not to act in this film and allowed his protégé, Edna Purviance to hog the limelight by merely directing. In the field of direction, Chaplin was moving way ahead of his time. The film did not do well as the audience was not ready to see a film without Chaplin in it and a plot that requires thinking and complexity. He had to return to comedy after that. He did it in a big way by making `The Gold Rush’ in 1925. He was inspired by the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. It cost him one million dollars to make as a result of multiple shooting locations, special effects and costly set material. He used over six hundred people to make the movie. It turned out to be an iconic epic. Chaplin portrayed a powerful role in this film. Marriage to avoid a Scandal In the nineteen twenties, Chaplin got involved with a sixteen-year old Lita Grey and got her pregnant. He was thirty-six at that time. In an act of panic, he married her. They went away to Mexico and got married in November 1924. She gave birth to Chaplin’s first child; a son named Spencer. Charlie Chaplin began to resent his wife after few months and spent most of his time in studios, away from her. In time, they had one more child together and the second son was Sydney Earl Chaplin. The audiences did not like the way Chaplin was treating his wife and it translated into box office earnings that fell. Chaplin divorced Lita Grey in August 1927 and went back to his work. A film out of these dark days was `Circus’. It got good reviews. He picked up his first Oscar in 1928. The Advent of Talkies Chaplin lost his balance as an actor with the introduction of the talkies. He was used to the silent films shooting and editing. He felt that movies were better with just background music and no sound dubbing. He was also nervous about the tramp character getting ruined if he started lending voice to his comic and wild gestures on film. He continued working on silent films and passed up on the spoken dialogue. His major film during these times was `City Lights’. In this plot, his character falls in love with a blind girl he meets at a street corner, where she sells flowers. He earns money to pay for her eye operation that would restore her vision. It took Chaplin a couple of years to complete the filming. The final edit was completed in December 1930 and the film was released in early 1931. It earned high praise from the critics and people started saying things like no one except Chaplin could have made such a film. The film had instant audience appeal. Chaplin’s fans were quite satisfied watching films without dialogues. In those days, the film earned Chaplin a huge sum of three million dollars. It was a big crowning achievement for him. After this film, Chaplin took a sabbatical for almost a year and a half from films. During this time, he came across a young actress, Paulette Goddard. He knew that she was going to be a star and he saw to it that she became one. He cast her as his co-star in `Modern Times’ in 1936. This film was a masterpiece – a satire of modern industrialised society. The film’s setting is the Great Depression. It highlights the struggle between workers who go on a strike and the factory owners; all this happens in a comic fashion. Industry is projected as a juggernaut which is ready to replace humanity. Isn’t that is what is happening today with artificial intelligence and its rise and control over human minds? Chaplin himself scored the music for this film. There is a satirical song that is made up of incoherent gibberish. Socialist Mind Not many people are aware that Chaplin had socialist leanings. He said, “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.” Chaplin penned `The Dictator’ and inserted this quote of his in that film. It was a mocking satire of Hitler and the Nazis. He began filming this epic film just six days after Britain issued a formal declaration of war against Germany. It was pretty controversial for Chaplin to make a film of this kind. He had also received a warning from his peers. If left to others, this film would never have seen the light of day. He had sufficient money to pull it off on a private basis. He wanted to make sure that Hitler would be laughed at. The film covered serious stuff and the ending was almost like a public service announcement. Chaplin looks right into the camera and addresses the audience as to why war is abominable and fascism had to be stopped. What was the result? Chaplin’s fame and star began to fade considerably. Taking exile from the United States of America Chaplin was outspoken with his `Great Dictator’ and `Modern Times’. He used to tell people in his inner circle, “Greed has poisoned men’s souls and it has barricaded the world with hate ... 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.” By the middle of nineteen forties, his film career declined and Chaplin started going through a hard time, coping with his popularity that was on a wane. J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began tracking every move of Chaplin but in vain; they could not find any dirt on him. In frustration, Hoover began a wicked smear campaign which was aimed at wrecking the public image of the star director. Chaplin came into the negative limelight by his open support of Russian War Relief. This kind of support was unacceptable in U.S. politics scene. It helped cast suspicion on to Chaplin’s motivation to help Russia. His detractors became worried that with his massive appeal; he would be able to reach the undesirables with his kind of socialist propaganda. FBI did their best to take Chaplin’s public persona down to reduce his influence on the world stage. Westbrook Pegler, hired by Hoover, started printing one story after another about Chaplin to make him unpopular. He was shown out as an ardent supporter of Russian communism and made out as a villain who hated American values. His divorce was portrayed as one that went against family values. By dumping his wife, he was made to look as if he was dumping America itself. To make matters worse, after few months, an alleged former lover of his came forward to file a paternity suit. Chaplin was vindicated from these vicious claims as blood tests proved that he was not the father. Public opinion did much damage to the reputation of Charles Spencer Chaplin in USA. In the name of national security, the FBI screwed up his life and image. Poor Chaplin had not even joined the communist party but was officially maligned as a traitor and communist. Chaplin did not take such kind of attacks, lying down. He turned the press conferences into circuses when he mentioned to the reporters, “Proceed with the butchery! Fire on at this old gray head!” During this phase, Chaplin managed to find happiness and love when he met an actress, Oona O’Neil. She stayed by his side till the day he died. She began worshipping him. Oona became his real friend and his comfort and saving grace. In 1951, Chaplin made `Limelight’, which, in my opinion, is his finest film. He gave the music for this film and it was magical. A brilliant score! The FBI did its best to ban this movie. This spelt his self-imposed exile from the United States of America. He would not set foot on American soil till 1972. By this time, the media’s desire in this country to malign Chaplin had grown cold and to a degree; the `little tramp’ was forgotten and forgiven. Chaplin was next seen when receiving the Special Academy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars. Standing next to the host Jack Lemmon, Chaplin looked like a fragile image of his former self. Chaplin was tormented by J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and he could care less of the public sentiment. He was not expecting to be received in this country with open arms; yet, he got a deafening standing ovation for a long time. The audience finally acknowledged his work with a big `Thank You’. If I am not mistaken, the applause set a record for the longest standing ovation that anyone had received on that stage since the inception in 1933. Later that year, Chaplin suffered a major stroke and had to spend most of his time on a wheelchair. He found it difficult to speak even; with his voice slurring. He still managed to release an illustrated biography called `my Life in Pictures’ in 1974. He rescored an old film, `A Woman of Paris’. He also featured in a documentary called `The Gentleman Tramp’, which was aired in 1975. In that year, he received knighthood by Queen Elizabeth, on a wheelchair. Subsequently, his health started to fade and he died on Christmas Day in 1977.

Henri Matisse - Master of Impressionist Art

“What I dream of is an art of balance, purity, and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter... a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” - Henri Matisse Henri Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambresis, Nord, France. He grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardy, France, where his parents owned a flower business; he was their first son. In 1887, he went to Paris to study law, working as a court administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first began painting in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies during a period of convalescence following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered "a kind of paradise" as he later described it, and decided to become an artist. In 1891, he returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau. Initially, he painted still-lives and landscapes in a traditional style proficiently. Matisse was influenced by the works of earlier masters such as Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Nicolas Poussin and Antoine Watteau and Edouard Manet. Chardin was one of Matisse's most admired painters; as an art student, he made copies of four Chardin paintings in the Louvre. He emerged as a Post-Impressionist and achieved prominence as the leader of the French movement Fauvism. He preferred to use color as the foundation for expressive and decorative paintings. He became famous for his original use of colour. He had skills as a draughtsman and a printmaker. He went on also to become a sculptor but was known essentially as a painter. He defined revolutionary developments in the visual arts during the first couple of decades of the twentieth century along with Pablo Picasso. His work between 1900 and 1905 brought him recognition as the `wild one’ or one of the `Fauves’. He developed a style that was rigorous; one which emphasized decorative patterns and flattened forms. He started living in Nice on the French Riviera from 1917 and adopted a more relaxed style of work up to the nineteen twenties. He upheld the classical tradition in French painting style. After 1930, he continued with a simplification of form. Ill health in later years prevented him from painting and he started to do work in the medium of cut paper collage. Matisse has left his stamp through his expressive use of drawing and colour and is an important figure in the history of modern art. He is recognised for his original and fluid draughtsman ship. He was also a fine sculptor and printmaker although he is considered mainly as a painter. Along with Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso, he has helped shape the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts during the initial decades of the twentieth century. Several of his paintings during the last decade of the nineteenth century use a `divisionist’ technique which he adopted after reading Eugene Delacroix and Neo-Impressionism, a work by Paul Signac. His work as a sculptor started with a copy after Antoine-Louis Barye in 1899. He devoted his energy later to working with clay when he completed `The Slave’ in 1903. His solo exhibition was in 1904 at the Ambroise Vollard Gallery. He did not achieve much success. In 1904, he spent a summer painting in St. Tropez with Neo-Impressionists Henri Edmond Cross and Paul Signac. His important works from this period are `Luxe’ and `Calme et Volupte’. He also worked with Andre Derain at Collioure. He laid an emphasis on controlled lines and flat shapes. In 1905, there was an exhibition held by Matisse and a group of artists known as `Fauves’ at the Salon d'Automne. The paintings expressed emotion with wild and dissonant colours, often without regard for the natural colours of the subject. Matisse showed `Open Window’ and `Woman with the Hat’. Critic Louis Vauxcelles described the work with the phrase `Donatello au milieu des fauves!’ (Donatello among the wild beasts); he was referring to a Renaissance-type sculpture that existed in the same room. His comment was printed on 17th October 1905 in `Gil Blas’, a daily. The exhibition drew harsh criticism from some - "A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public", said the critic Camille Mauclair but it also attracted some favorable attention. When the painting that was singled out for special condemnation, Matisse's `Woman with a Hat’, was bought by Gertrude and Leo Stein, the nervous artist’s morale improved considerably. Matisse once wrote, “if my story were to be written truthfully from beginning to end, it would amaze everyone.” He developed a long association with Sergei Shchukin, a Russian art collector. His major work, `La Danse’ (1909), was done especially for Shchukin. It was part of a double painting commission. The other work was `Music’ (1910). These works could be seen now in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Henri Matisse died of a cardiac arrest in 1954, at the age of eighty-four. He is buried in the cemetery of Monastere Notre Dame de Cimiez. It is near Nice. The impact of Matisse on Fauvism is no less than that of William Shakespeare on English literature and Sigmund Freud on psychology. American abstract artists such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock were influenced by him in making the colour responsible for structural configurations. Their works showcased this kind of style. Matisse has had a great impact on artists of late twentieth century who defined a pictorial language clearly with colours and arabesque lines instead of making a painting look like a means to an end.