MacFormat España 17/MacFormat 17 (Spain)/MacFormat 17.bin/DATABASE/SHARED.DIR/01510_34.cap.txt

Text File | 1996-03-14 | 4.2 KB | 247 lines

@
Charlie Chaplin
was the first and
perhaps the
biggest ever
film star. He
transformed the
early silent
comedies by
introducing
characterisation,
pathos and satire
into the knock-
about farce
formula. By 1915,
a year after his
first film, he was
a household name
#
Chaplin's
childhood was
spent in the
workhouse after
his father died
and his mother
became insane.
His best films
drew on the
poverty,
loneliness and
brutality that
Chaplin
remembered
from his youth
#
Chaplin's comedies were an appealing bitter-sweet mix of slapstick
and pathos. He once said: "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up,
but a comedy in long-shot"
#
Chaplin's
downtrodden
tramp struck a
deep chord with
audiences in an
age of economic
depression and
political
uncertainty.
Millions laughed
not just because
he was funny, but
because they
knew what
Charlie meant
#
The Kid, made
in 1921, was the
first of many
feature length
films which
Chaplin wrote,
directed and
starred in. It was
one of his most
successful films,
and was hailed
by critics as a
masterpiece
@
As talking
pictures became
the norm, Chaplin
remained
resolutely silent
on screen. He
sensed that
speech might
limit his
universal appeal,
whereas with
mime he was as
eloquent in Delhi
or Shanghai as in
Los Angeles or
London
#
The Great
Dictator (1940)
poked fun at
fascist Germany.
Chaplin played a
caricature of
Hitler. He later
said he would
not have made
a comedy of
Nazism film if
he had known at
the time the
full horror of
Hitler's regime
#
The Great Dictator was seen by some as pro-war propaganda, and
in 1940 (before Pearl Harbor) this looked like a lack of patriotism.
After the war Chaplin attracted the sinister attention of FBI chief,
J Edgar Hoover. Insulted and frightened, Chaplin fled to Switzerland
#
Chaplin's private
life was less
successful than
his professional
career. After
three unhappy
marriages to
teenage brides,
Chaplin, aged 54,
married a fourth.
Oona O'Neill was
the 18-year-old
daughter of
playwright
Eugene O'Neill.
The marriage
produced eight
children and
lasted until
his death
#
Between 1914 and 1921 Chaplin released over 70 films, but in the
five decades that followed the end of the silent era he made only 12
more. Though some of his later work is highly acclaimed, Chaplin is
best remembered for the inspired clowning of his earliest movies
#
Chaplin was a star around the globe before the first world war
was out. The world has changed beyond recognition since then, and
Chaplin is dead. But the hard-done-by little tramp, trying to
preserve a shred of dignity in a cruel world, is with us still
@
The Beatles split
was blamed by
many on Yoko
Ono. John doted
on her, and Paul
was deeply
distrustful of her,
But the two
songwriters'
paths had already
diverged, and the
worst that can be
said of Yoko is
that she hastened
the group's
demise
#
The once happy
and fruitful
Beatles
partnership slid
after the break-
up into personal
sniping and legal
bickering. Lennon
released a very
poor song, How
Do You Sleep,
which was a
bitter and vicious
attack on Paul
#
After the Beatles
fell apart the
members moved
on to other
projects. Lennon
moved to New
York, Ringo Starr
got interested in
film, Harrison
made some
respectable
albums in Britain
, and McCartney,
after a period of
peace and quiet,
re-emerged with
what he called a
working skiffle
band - Wings
#
John Lennon was
killed outside his
home in New
York. He had
done little in the
previous five
years, but had
just re-emerged
with a new
album. His death
put paid to the
perennial
rumours that the
Beatles were
about to get back
together
#
If prophetic
photographs are
anything to go by,
it seems Lennon
knew he would
be the first Beatle
to die. Sales in
Beatles records
naturally
rocketed after his
death, and with
his corpus of
work now
complete, the
appraisal of his
legacy, with the
Beatles and
without them,
could begin
#
Paul McCartney's
solo output has
remained
impressive, but
as with Lennon,
the quality
varied. Though
both men strived
to create a
separate musical
identity for
themselves after
the Beatles,
neither could
quite ever escape
the shadow of
their youthful
moptopped selves