ChiO wrote:
Do you think THE GREAT DICTATOR was the bigger risk? It was risky, but it had many aspects of The Tramp, which undoubtedly provided some comfort to audiences. MONSIEUR VERDOUX, on the other hand, presents our beloved Tramp as not only a non-Tramp, but a serial murderer in the blackest of comedies. As for the political polemic at the end of THE GREAT DICTATOR, either one would buy it or not, but in MONSIEUR VERDOUX he challenges everyone to the very core -- not just politically, but the moral philosophy of the World as he saw it.
It's like you read my mind. When I first started writing, I thought that
Verdoux was easily the biggest risk he ever took, due to the nature of the piece. But then I realized that satirizing Hitler was pretty big too.
So I backtracked on my original assumption and you caught me out.
One could say that there are still vestiges of the Tramp in
Verdoux, but they are not overt, nor are they particularly meaningful. Chaplin's
viewpoint though is the same. I think this is what I was trying to get at in a different thread, talking about Verdoux. His movies were ABOUT something, not just intended as deft slapstick or black comedy, starting very early on, so who's to say he wasn't directing the film properly, for him? His films are not, as some critics would have us believe, simplistic, moralistic, or Victorian. Well not moralistic as we know the word. In fact, I find his sophistication staggering. I think that's why I love
A Woman of Paris so much, and it looks like
Verdoux is headed for second place on my list. His morals are those of a singularly thoughtful man. He does not go along with the crowd on what is moral. His polemic, no that's the wrong word, his OUTLOOK is what we are after in Chaplin's films, at least once we have seen most of his work, not his outward appearance, nor his skill at framing or attempts to control his actors.
I find his deconstruction of what is right and wrong for individuals most fascinating, not the mechanics of the directing, though I found the movie quite funny and well timed. Right and Wrong are basically different for each person. Human beings are vulnerable and fragile in so many ways, and this motivates them in ways we cannot imagine. Humanism and forgiveness are beaten down by the closed minded in this film (also in
Woman of Paris). I feel that he's describing our world in broad terms that I can't always quite grasp. For me, he's talking about freedom to live one's own life, not a life ruled by mores and strictures imposed by someone else or a group or a state or a church or a book or the guy next door. To live a life not bound by convention is freeing, and gives us insight, and I find this very, very appealing. In other words, there is no clearcut right or wrong in Verdoux. We may feel outrage that he killed these women, but the heart tells us something different when we get to the end of the film. I found it open ended in a supremely entertaining way, it leaves you with a brain full of questions about authority, marriage, human nature, society, and again, the nature of right and wrong (which doesn't really exist outside of what society decides at any time).
For me, MONSIEUR VERDOUX is Chaplin's greatest masterpiece in a career with more than most.
Tangentially, the assistant director of LIMELIGHT, a Mr. Robert Aldrich, said in an unpublished interview that Chaplin was "a great artist but a terrible director. He couldn't communicate ideas to a performer; he could only show them how he would do it." But he also said that Chaplin was "an enormous contributor to the film as art and as business" and he taught Aldrich "the impossibility of defeat. No matter what happens, he had enough energy and enthusiasm and confidence to overcome any disaster." That later reflection would appear to apply to Chaplin both as a person and his film persona.
Again, another great artist not bound by convention, like Welles. I believe Chaplin was a worker, he found a way to do what he wanted, what pleased him, what he HAD to say, to show. He risked everything, because everything is pretty small thing to lose when art is concerned.