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Music Appreciation
Related: About this forum'Smile': Tribute to Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Greatest Actor In Film Industry
- Chaplin wrote the famous song 'smile' as the instrumental music score of his movie, 'Modern Times' (1936)
~ Smile- Music by Charles Chaplin, Lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons
Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though its breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
youll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
Youll see the sun come shining through
for you
Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
Thats the time you must keep on trying
Smile whats the use of crying
Youll find that life is still worthwhile
If youll just Smile ~
Chaplin was a man of many talents, but he is most renowned for his contributions to the art of film. He was one of the first comedians to finance and produce all of his pictures (with the one exception being A Countess from Hong Kong (1966)) - and to write, cast, act, direct, edit, and compose for them as well. In a 1995 survey of film critics worldwide, Chaplin was voted the greatest actor in film history. He was and will always be an extraordinary cinema legend...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pickford-charlie-chaplin-1889-1977/
- Charlie Chaplin, c. 1920, publicity portrait.
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'Smile': Tribute to Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Greatest Actor In Film Industry (Original Post)
appalachiablue
May 2020
OP
Jeebo
(2,023 posts)1. Like you, I hold Charlie Chaplin in high esteem.
However, I think the two greatest film actors of all time are Laurence Olivier and Charles Laughton. In my humble opinion. These things are, of course, subjective. It's interesting that Charlie Chaplin wrote that song. I didn't know that. He was a man of many talents, indeed. But if the issue is who is the greatest film ACTOR of all time (not composer, not director, but ACTOR), then Olivier and Laughton get my votes. Olivier was more of a leading man, and Laughton was a GREAT character actor, nobody else past or present is even close. IMHO.
-- Ron
appalachiablue
(41,132 posts)2. Oliver and Laughton are great, also for me Bette Davis
Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren are tops. Gregory Peck's always been a fav screen star. So many others.
appalachiablue
(41,132 posts)3. "Modern Times" (1936) Story of Great Depression & Automation
(Trailer).
"Modern Times" (1936), story of hardship during the Great Depression occurring alongside rising industrial automation. The 1936 classic film stars Paulette Goddard and Chaplin who produced the work.
The Great Depression lasted 1929-1940 in America, and fortunately we got FDR.
Other places impacted by the economic depression did far worse; in Italy fascist Benito Mussolini rose to become Prime Minister by coup d'état (1922-1943) and dictator Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933.
The Second World War began in 1939, caused major loss and destruction until ending in 1945 with the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and Japan.
- Chaplin surrounded by a crowd in Vienna, Austria in 1931. He went on an 18-month European tour and was disturbed by seeing the rise of nationalism, mas unemployment and automation there.
- Filming 'Modern Times' (1936), Charlie Chaplin.
https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/6-Filming-Modern-Times
..Chaplin was acutely preoccupied with the social and economic problems of this new age. In 1931 and 1932 he had left Hollywood behind, to embark on an 18-month world tour. In Europe, he had been disturbed to see the rise of nationalism and the social effects of the Depression, of unemployment and of automation. He read books on economic theory; and devised his own Economic Solution, an intelligent exercise in utopian idealism, based on a more equitable distribution not just of wealth but of work. In 1931 he told a newspaper interviewer :
Unemployment is the vital question . . . Machinery should benefit mankind. It should not spell tragedy and throw it out of work....(con't)