Monsieur Verdoux

Post-war moral blackout: The end of the world, a totality in form/content, a thriller more Brechtian than Brecht. Tracing the history of the world between 1929 to 1945: Wall Street Crash leads to Great Depression leads to rise of fascism leads to atomic bomb. We've…

Neil Bahadur

It's becoming a tradition for me to watch this movie after U.S. presidential elections. The last two have been incredibly depressing - seemingly engineered to extinguish any hope that a better world might be possible. Like anyone, I have sometimes turned to art for comfort,…

Will Sloan

85 "It's the approach of death that terrifies." "I suppose, if the unborn knew of the approach of life, they'd be just as terrified." Charlie Chaplin examines the blood mechanics of capitalism - the politeness and absurd formality of evil. Monsieur Verdoux…

SilentDawn

Charlie Chaplin inverting his entire image by becoming a serial killer and yet he's still as sweet as can be and I want to put him in my pocket.

Willow Maclay

"What is it you're doing these days, Verdoux?" "Oh, a little bit of everything - real estate, stock market, etc." "You must have made a killing." A philosophical work which hinges entirely on the weight of a single performance...

Neil Bahadur

A comedy of manners post civilization. Chaplin the actor has always been Chaplin the filmmaker's main subject and weapon, henceforth it makes sense that his finest on-screen work happens to be his finest movie. Very funny (even more so because of the tramp ghost hanging…

Filipe Furtado

Bluebeard from Bluebeard's own point of view; a Bluebeard without a castle, hiding in plain view in between global cataclysms and captured in the end as a coda to a single, long-ago act of mercy. Maybe the most remarkable leveraging of celebrity against subject matter in…

Adam Nayman

“I shall see you all… very soon…”

Will Sloan

The 20th century is a history of murdered bodies. In many ways, it closes a lot of strands of Chaplin's directorial career. Some of his greatest work as an actor, above all in the scenes with Martha Raye. The graceful notes when the laughs and murdering attempts slow down…

Filipe Furtado