Chaplin's “Modern Times”

Extract

One of the greatest difficulties of cinema as an art is that many of its effects can be obtained in two ways—legitimately by the proper use of the medium, and illegitimately by borrowing from the other arts and principally the theatre. The majority of commercial films fall into the second category. From time to time, however, comes a film which stands out from the general run by virtue of its essentially filmic qualities. We experience the peculiar pleasure that is derived from seeing the resources of an artistic medium used as they should be—to produce effects that no other art can produce so well. The Virtuous Isidore and Remous were both films of this kind. And now America has provided an example which is far richer and subtler than either—Chaplin’s Modern Times.