Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 11

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times By John Schauer Being a devoted fan of old movies, I’m al- ways shocked when I encounter someone, usually much younger than I, who has avoided seeing iconic classics like Citizen Kane or All About Eve , simply because they were made in black and white. It was this widespread prejudice harbored by Millennials and younger Gen-Xers that rst inspired—and I use the term loosely—Ted Turner to start messing with artistic perfection by colorizing monochrome movies and, in the process, infuriating old timers, meaning those of us who set foot on earth before MTV. But some honest re ection led me to realize that everyone, including this curmudgeon, has some sort of psychological blinders that limits their appreciation of var- ious genres for purely technical reasons. In my case, I used to draw the line at silent movies. I could happily watch lms from the early s, but take away a synchronized soundtrack, and the resulting experience had all the allure of watching old mm home movies. Why? I don’t think it was having to read the interti- tles (a more recent term for what used to be called subtitles, coined by literalists who probably be- lieve that the suburbs are actually underneath the city). Subtitles in a foreign-language lm are irritating because they force you to take your eyes o the performers; silent-movie intertitles do not. My turn-o is the Mighty Wurlitzer, the organs that o en accompany silent lms in the more upscale revival theaters. I confess, with no sense of pride, to not enjoying organ music. Some people object to the psychological association they have with forced church attendance in their youth, but I blame the music school I attended. Music majors were required to attend a minimum number of student recitals each semester. Too o en I put o ful lling that obligation until there was nothing to attend but an endless succes- sion of organ recitals in the school chapel, an overdose from which I have never recovered. Just as, for many years, I would not eat mashed potatoes a er having them served twice a day in the school cafeteria for four years. I’ve since come to enjoy mashed potatoes again; the same isn’t true of organ music. Fortunately, as more and better home video editions of silent movies became available, a new world was opened to me. Some of the best restorations recreate the original orchestral scores that accompa- nied silent blockbusters in major cities. Others go one step further by providing newly composed or arranged music. at the Turner Classic Movies network has commissioned many of them goes a long way toward rehabilitating Ted Turner’s tainted—or should I say tinted?—reputa- tion in my estimation. With the simple addition of decent music, I was able to appreciate the o en breathtaking design and dazzling cam- era work silent movies exhibited in their golden age during the mid to late s. Unfortunately, much of that visual bril- liance got lost when cameras had to be locked in soundproofed booths for the rst “talkies.” e notion that this revolution took place overnight with the release of e Jazz Singer is one of those miscon- ceptions that should be consigned to the same historical trash heap as the belief that Edison invented the light bulb, Co- lumbus discovered America, or Napoleon was short. In the rst place, e Jazz Singer was basically a silent lm that incorporated a few mu- sical numbers that were played on records while the lm was shown. It was only a few lines of dialogue Al Jolson improvised during one of his songs that earned the lm its dubious dis- tinction of being the rst “talkie.” And second, nearly a decade lat- er, the great Charlie Chaplin was still eschewing dialogue in such masterpieces as City Lights and Modern Times , even though they had synchronized soundtracks. Chaplin understood the pow- er of music to express what words cannot, and not only composed the scores for his later lms but even went back to create music for his earlier silent movies. On August , violinist Philippe Quint and Marta Aznavoorian will show- case Chaplin’s compositional talents. And as further evidence of his artistic genius, he didn’t use pipe organs. John Schauer is a freelance writer whose “Essentials of Classical Music” can be found on Ravinia’s website. e Sounds of Silents AUGUST 12 – AUGUST 25, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 37