"When I started to truly love myself,
I don't continue to dwell on the past,
And no longer worry about tomorrow,
Now I'm just living in the moment when everything is happening.
Today, I live here and now!
……”
Chaplin's legendary life, lived for 88 years to realize the true meaning of life! Before his death, he wrote "When I Started to Truly Love Myself".
In 1940, Chaplin began preparations for the filming of The Great Dictator based on Hitler. But at great risk, Hollywood did not dare to openly make films against the Nazi Party.
Even President Roosevelt said that the film damaged U.S. foreign relations and was once banned from its release. As the film drew to a close, Chaplin arranged for the barber to mistakenly walk to the "Zhu jie conference" to complete the pursuit of freedom.
The 7-minute talk became one of the outstanding and wonderful speeches, and it was also Chaplin's first sound film.
In order to figure out the posture and actions of Hitler, a dictator, he did everything possible to collect news documentaries about Hitler, and every time he watched it was a few hours.
The film was more than 2 years old, and when it was released, World War II had already broken out, and the film was banned in Germany. The audience who loved him sweated for him, worried that Chaplin had a big event this time, and even endangered his life!
Surprisingly, despite the ban on The Great Dictator, Hitler himself ordered someone to buy a film from Portugal and ship it to Germany. Goebbels was furious after reading it, and ordered that it would not be screened!
Hitler himself insisted on watching, and he watched quietly behind closed doors, and watched it over and over again, but he never said a word. No one knows what he's thinking? Since then, the scene of Hitler playing with the globe in "The Great Dictator" has become a classic!
Chaplin said with regret after hearing this: "If I could let me know what he thought of the film, I would give anything." ”
Coincidentally, Chaplin and Hitler were born in the same month of the same year, and even their birthdays were only a few days apart. Later it was discovered that Hitler seemed to have the same moustache as Chaplin, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Some say Hitler wanted to use Chaplin for propaganda and to improve himself. The film was later popularized by the public, and in the next 10 years, Chaplin ushered in the darkest period of his career.
Why was Chaplin so bold? It was closely related to his childhood experiences.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line">01</h1>
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > the imprint of a tragic childhood</h1>
Charlie. Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to a poor family in England. This coincided with the heyday of theatre in Britain, with more than 200 theatres across the country. Both parents were comedians in the troupe, and his comedic talent was inherited and his talent for comedy was a matter of hearing about it.
Unfortunately, in the second year of his birth, his parents divorced. The father drank heavily to avoid supporting responsibilities, and the mother Hana had to bear the burden of raising two children.
He also has a half-brother who is 4 years older than himself, and from the time he has a memory, the family will always have to face the dilemma of not being able to make ends meet.
When the mother was young, she was good at singing and performing, and her singing voice was gentle and beautiful, and in the future, she became increasingly hoarse because she was alone to take care of her children.
Little Chaplin will always remember the day when his mother sang stage, and the song was immediately drowned out by shrill boos and cheers.
The impatient boss panicked and pushed little Chaplin, who was standing by the curtain, onto the stage to save the scene.
Unexpectedly, the children were not afraid of the stage at all, singing and dancing happily, and the audience was amused by his novel performance, and they threw coins on the stage to applaud.
He stopped the performance and calmly said to the audience, "I'm sorry, but allow me to receive the coin in my hat and perform it for everyone!" ”
Such a real and unpretentious child made everyone feel refreshed, and instead of objecting, everyone happily agreed. He was only 5 years old this year, and it was his first performance on stage and his mother's last.
The mother lost her income from the performance, and the impoverished family became even worse, and the mother and son had to live separately in the workhouse and the orphans' school.
What makes Chaplin most memorable is that her mother is naturally optimistic, and no matter how miserable her life is, she will teach her children how to have fun in their suffering.
She sometimes stood by the window watching pedestrians, guessing their personalities through their appearance and demeanor, and making up stories. Sometimes in a pantomime way, simulating what happened on the street with his hands, making two children laugh.
She also tells Bible stories to the children in her spare time doing handicrafts, and the children often hear tears that blur their eyes. It was in that dark room, Chaplin recalled, that he saw eternal topics of love, pity and humanity.
Even such days were a luxury for Chaplin. When Chaplin was 7 years old, her mother was sent to an insane asylum because of a mental breakdown caused by the burden of life, and her illness has been repeated since then.
Chaplin said goodbye to school completely at the age of 9, and his father died at the age of 10 because of alcoholism at the age of 37.
In order to survive, chaplin jr. did all kinds of chores, working as a newspaper boy, a printer, a toy vendor, and so on at the lowest level. In the future, when he stands at the peak of fame and fortune, some people will be equal to the price of yin and yang, and he always misses those slums.
He felt ridiculous, "I still don't know, there is a person who will miss the poor." "I think poverty is neither lovely nor noble." Poverty is not noble, but no money will only make you sad and anxious all day.
It is precisely because of the tempering of a poor life that he has the courage not to fear power later! From a clown who can only laugh, he has been upgraded to an artist and has won the love of audiences all over the world. Chaplin's works are more derived from the life at the bottom, and they are more resonant and empathetic to everyone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line">02.</h1>
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > have a clear goal and know what they want</h1>
"No matter what I do, I never forgot my original dream of becoming an actor."
In 1898, Chaplin joined the "Lancashire Eight Boys' Dance Troupe," and at the age of 9 he knew how to add to his own play.
In an animal drama he played a cat, and in the performance he played on the spot, leaning against the front desk pillar like a dog, lifting his hind legs to make a peeing motion, and the audience was amused.
At the age of 12, he played billy the little maid in "Sherlock Holmes", and Chaplin could easily play a treasure on the stage for five minutes.
Without saying a word, the audience can laugh, which makes the protagonist of the crew jealous, and even flattens him.
From 1910 to 1913, Chaplin was already a pillar of the troupe, and he performed in the United States with the troupe many times. His performance was favored by The East Film Company and he threw an olive branch at him.
Chaplin, 24, wasn't enthusiastic about movies at the time, but he was impressed by his starting salary of $150 a week — the first time in his life that he could take that much money, and it was really appealing.
The company's main focus is the savage comedy of the genre of infidelity, there is no script, and when you have inspiration, you can always add jokes. It's basically a punch-and-kick plot.
Chaplin was not used to it, although he did not understand movies, he understood that personality is the most important thing for an actor. Even in his stereotyped performances, he strives to highlight his style.
In 1914, Chaplin, a tramp wearing fat bulging pants, a taut top, a top hat on his head, a cane in hand, a mustache, and an exaggerated duck step, the most classic image of a tramp was born.
In the same year, less than 2 years into the film industry, he became popular at a rocket-like speed.
In 1916, he made a pact with the Muir Quail Film Company, with an annual salary of one million dollars, which was the highest in the film industry at that time. The image of the tramp appears in comic strips, cartoons, books and songs, and audiences admire him as if they were a rock star.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line">03.</h1>
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > treat work with excellence</h1>
After becoming famous, Chaplin had the right to speak and could make movies on his own terms. Qiston company filming, even a few centimeters long failure is not allowed.
Chaplin filming, there are not so many routines, with inspiration to immediately capture it, and finally may not be satisfied with throwing away everything that has been filmed and starting all over again.
In June 1917, the transformational work "Immigration" shot 40,000 feet of film, and Chaplin spent four days and four nights with the help of assistants to cut it to the required 1,800 feet. He had to watch each shot at least 50 times.
In The Gold Rush, he carefully selected 8555 feet of finished film from 231505 foot film. The ratio of the positive film to the obsolete film of "Finding the Immortals" is 53:1.
In addition to self-directing and self-acting, Chaplin often covered the soundtrack and editing of films, and his versatility was astonishing. The eldest son, Charles Jr., recalls:
"When my father buried his head in work, everything else, including the family, was gone for him.
He demanded excellence everywhere, and when he rehearsed a play with his third wife, Pauline, he had to rehearse a scene more than ten times until the requirements were fully met.
Once he was engaged in creation, Chaplin became infatuated, more and more excited. Even forgetting that eating and sleeping is commonplace, and the staff does not dare to disturb him, only to accompany him to work.
He was equally strict with himself, and when filming The Circus, Chaplin spent a week learning to walk a tightrope. When it was about to be finished, all the shots were destroyed due to improper rinsing.
More than seven hundred tightrope walks were shot from the beginning, and the last one was used for only a few minutes.
The frightening scene in the lion cage was also filmed two hundred times before it was satisfied.
Afterwards, Chaplin said that the horror expression on his face in the film was not acting, but a performance.
Moreover, he wrote the script himself, which is a fool's dream for a person who was forced to leave school at the age of 9 and has not yet graduated from elementary school to engage in literary creation.
But with his unique talent and diligent study, he has created one classic after another. Initially, he forced himself to write 500 words a day to practice, with no limit to the questions.
Chaplin had a good sense of music and learned to play the cello and violin without a teacher, except for writing with his right hand, all with his left hand.
Playing the violin would reverse the strings, and the music he wrote for films such as City Lights and Modern Times is still popular today. When he was nervous, he would wrap a long string of film around his neck and examine the light carefully.
Chaplin's comprehension is very strong, and he is not willing to be just an actor. As soon as he had the opportunity, he stole the production technology, frequently went in and out of the printing room and the editing room, and observed how the staff cut the film.
He strives to write and direct himself, and constantly tries to integrate more delicate stage techniques and performance techniques into film creation.
Except for Tilly's Love History, from June 1914 until his death, he directed all films that had him go abroad.
If you're not satisfied with some of the shots, tear them off with your hands and have the editor link them.
Chaplin also put on his own makeup, and his favorite makeup artist stood by and watched him put on it, thinking it was a pleasure, and he cut out a toothbrush-like moustache with three strokes and five divisions.
Still, he would pay makeup artists, editors. Perhaps he felt that challenging professional success was something to be proud of.
The only setback was when he wanted to replace the recorder, spending two full days trying to replicate the roar of the plane's engines. It is practiced to attach many celluloids of different thicknesses to the rotating pulp blades of ventilators with different horsepower.
The recorder was amused to watch Chaplin exhausted. He had to admit that he had failed, and what made his eyes widen was that the recorder immediately picked up the recording equipment and went to the airport, recording the sound of the plane's engine.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line">04.</h1>
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > self-reliant portal, not willing to be an actor</h1>
In 1919, in order to get rid of the shackles of the film company, Chaplin married the film star Mary Ann. Becky, Douglas. Together with the great director Griffiths, Van Punk founded United Pictures (later one of the eight largest film companies in the United States) to fight for greater interests and creative freedom.
In 1921, the 68-minute "Finding the Son meets the Immortals" was his first feature film, and Chaplin's comedy style with tears in his laughter gradually took shape.
Chaplin also boldly experimented with subjects that seemed not very funny to others, and incorporated his attention to social issues. "Immigration" focuses on the immigration problem that stands out in the United States, and after the film was screened, he was no longer just a sensational clown role.
People began to refer to the comedian as an artist, and he chose the form of pantomime. Because he believes that pantomime is a universal language that attracts audiences all over the world.
If you only retain an English-speaking audience, won't you lose another part of your audience? He felt that sound movies were a dead end, so he had been working on the road of pantomime.
When the Economy was in the Great Depression, he saw the tragic fate of unemployment and poverty suffered by many poor people, and he filmed "Modern Times". The film is aimed at the oppression of people by the large-scale industry of machines, and the film is regarded by the FBI as one of the evidence that Chaplin was a communist.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line">05.</h1>
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > deported because he did not want to become a U.S. citizen</h1>
Beginning in 1922, Edgar. Hoover and his Bureau of Investigation (the predecessor of the FBI) began to notice Chaplin. His films were a huge success in the United States, but he never expressed an interest in obtaining American citizenship.
After World War II, American society turned sharply to the right. In 1945, the infamous Commission of Inquiry into Non-American Activities launched a nationwide purge campaign.
First of all, take Hollywood, Hollywood has become self-endangered for a while, silent. When whistleblowing was prevalent, Chaplin bore the brunt. The authorities chose to borrow Chaplin's private life as a pretext, and Chaplin's private life was indeed complicated.
For the first time, Chaplin gave up the image of the ace "tramp", a black comedy with a cynical torture from the soul.
The conservative United States, which was in the middle of the Cold War, felt a sting, and Chaplin was besieged by journalists. It also drew protests from veterans' groups, who have been living in a country he has lived in for 40 years but feels increasingly isolated.
On September 17, 1952, Chaplin's family went to London to attend the world premiere of "Stage Career". The next morning, the U.S. attorney general announced that chaplin would be denied re-entry, citing his cooperation with communist organizations.
In 1955, his wife Una returned to China, sold lianmei's shares, and liquidated all his property in the United States.
It wasn't until 1972, 20 years later, that he returned with an Oscar for lifetime achievement. At the award ceremony, the audience spontaneously applauded him for 5 minutes.
In 1953, Chaplin settled in the small town of Vevey in western Switzerland, where he spent the last 24 years of his life.
He has always forgotten the art of cinema, and at the age of 78 he made his last film, The Countess of Hong Kong, which was also his first color and wide silver film.
Chaplin made 88 films in his lifetime, 67 of which were made before the age of 30. Mostly short films of ten minutes.
On Christmas Day 1977, he died quietly in his sleep at the age of 88.
References to Chaplin's Autobiography, Remembering My Father Chaplin, Pam. Brown's Biography of Chaplin.
#卓别林 #