Movies

The development of film and cinema industry has grown of age. Different periods including supportive technological requirements have made the development of film industry improve its products and services. Numerous directors, writers and producers have been involved in the cinema industry, with each coming with unique approaches and characteristics that aim to improve their final product. Thus, the aim of this paper is to summarize Evolution of the Language of Cinema by Andre Bazin and the film by Charlie Chaplain, Modern times. This paper ends with trying to link the views of Bazin and Chaplin in the development of language and cinema evolution. 

Andre Bazin Evolution of the Language of Cinema
Evolution of the language of cinema is a historical writing presented by Andre Bazin, and it is believed to be written between 1950 and 1955 before he died in 1958. The main fundamental of the entire writing is contrasting between those directors (and films) that rely on montage and those who rely on verisimilitude. Bazin champions the idea of realism and points out that jumping from silent film to sound film was not a major historical phenomenon in evolutional point in film language. Bazin begins his analysis in the silent period through employing stylistic and semi-auteur approach, and he groups most directors between 1920 and 1940 into 2 groups. These groups are those who base their views on image (the imagists) and those who base their views on reality (the realists).

The imagist directors are further grouped into those using plastics (composition, dcor and lighting) and those who work with editing (the montagists). This means realists do not distort space (like expressionists) or time (like the montagists) but tries to depict reality. Some directors that he groups in the realistic camp include Renoir, Murnau, and Dreyer. Moreover, the montagists are grouped into two camps those of the periods between 1920 and 1930 who  include Griffith, and Eisenstein and those of between 1930 and 1940 influenced by Vsevolod Pudovkin.

Mostly, the two camps were evident as Soviet Post Revolution cinema (the montagists) and German Expressionism (the plastics) at the end of the salient period. Moreover, jumping from salient to sound did not cause any effect on editing or shooting styles. Nearing 1940s, sound became a major factor in that it moved editing towards realism, while switching expressivesymbolic to analyticdramatic operational approach. By 1939, film reached a period of classical perfection where form and content was fused. Technology advancement was common since innovations were improving and any further development could be championed by thematic approach. Thus, this resulted in the most appropriate time in aesthetic revolution and hence arrival of mise-en-scene style.

By 1940s, Bazin states that realistic style had been overtaken by imagist style. The salient period belonged to the imagist while in the middle and late 1930s, realist maturation occurred. Realistic style split up into two camps comprised by spatial realists and pure objective realists. The understanding of Bazin is that there will be a period of total cinema. To some extent, this view is true because of salient (imagists) dominated in the 1920s and early 1930s but was overtaken by realism. However, with time, this view has changed since there is nothing like total cinema.

Charlie Chaplain Modern Times (Moments)
Modern times was the last appearance of the Little Tramp this is a character that had brought Charlie Chaplin into the world of cinema and thus fame, and still remains the most fictional image in the history of Art. Modern Times is a 1936 film that brings into consideration struggles that Little Tramp had to undergo to survive in an industrialized world. Thus, the film symbols hardships that are associated with the underprivileged. Moment is a commentary film on the desperate unemployment conditions that resulted because of Great Depression, the conditions that were created from the view of Chaplins, by the rise of industrial automation and other efficiencies of industrialization. Other major characters in the film written and directed by Chaplin include Henry Bergman, Paulette Goddard, Chester Conklin and Stanley Sandford. The factory were the film was taken was designed in a futuristic look.

The story is based on Tramp and a young woman (Gamine) gamines father was killed during labor demonstrations, whom the authorities wanted to put her in an orphanage as they (Tramp and other youngsters) tried to overcome the difficulties associated with street life. Chaplin and Gamin are the main characters since the time the police wanted to arrest Gamine for stealing a loaf of bread. Chaplin defended her because he was looking for means to get back into jail because he had a good reputation. Chaplain then became a security guard and took Gamine to stay with him but burglars broke into the store and stole food (Charlie Chaplain, 2009). Chaplain is then arrested and after ten days in jail, Chaplain is released and within some hours, he gets a job in a factory. He is involved in an incident with the boss and the workers go on strike. The workers hit a police officer with a stone, and Chaplain is again arrested falsely. Both Chaplin and Gamine lands a job in a hotel, but when the police wanted to arrest Gamine for previous mistakes, they escape and walk down a road towards uncertainty and thus the end of the cinema. Nevertheless, Chaplin tries numerous jobs but quickly looses all of them.
It is one of the last salient films made, but Modern Times included sound effects, voices, singers and music coming from louder speakers and radios. However, when the film is about to end, the voice of Tramp is heard as he ad-libs pseudo- Italian and French gibberish into the tune of a popular music that he sings has a waiter.

Moreover, the film was shot at a speed of 18 frames per second, which is a silent speed and when the film was projected at speeds of 24 frames per second (sound speed) the slapstick is seen more frenetic. This may be attributed to the fact that Chaplin had evidenced such features in his earlier films and tries to re-create the effect deliberately.

Numerous memorable and dramatic scenes are evident in this film. For example, Chaplin is trying to tighten a bolt but he is being pulled by enormous machine gears. Another scene shows Chaplin picked up and was waving a flag so that the driver can attract his attention. At the same time, numerous labor protesters were following him without knowing. The police then arrested Chaplin because the police who were trying to break the protest thought that he was the leader of protest.

Generally, Bazin views and Chaplin film shares some fundamentals and features. Most of the films that have been written and directed by Chaplin have factored salient style except this one. Bazin states that the idea of realism began in early 1930s but developed in mid 1930s and this time concurs with the time Moment was directed Moment was released in 1936. Realism is an important factor in development of any film, and Chaplin championed this idea through incorporating the factory, experiences of women through Gamine and general difficulties that people faced after the Great Depression. Inclusion of sound effects in the Chaplin film shows that the approach presented by Bazin that cinema production evolves e.g. 1920s Directors utilized different approach to 1930s directors, thus showing that Chaplin aim of introducing minimal sound effects plus Chaplins own voice illustrates the important of sound features. Thus, analytical analysis of Bazin writings and Chaplin film shows the evolution of language and sound effects in development of cinema. Hence, different views may be championed by other directors and authors but most of the films and cinemas that were produced within this period somehow illustrates salient features has explained by Bazin.