“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin
Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- A Personal Memory: or: What Dog Day Afternoon Means to Me
- Happy Birthday, Hediyeh Tehrani
- “All I actually wanted was for my work to be useful.”–Claudius Afolabi Siffre
- “I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts.” — George Orwell
- “People are always asking me if I thought Elvis was a handsome man and my answer is ‘I am not blind you know’!” — Millie Kirkham
- Physical Media Booklet Essay: The Podcast
- “And the role of the fatal chorus / I agree to take on” — Anna Akhmatova
- “The energy doesn’t end at the hands. I want such intensity that it feels like light is streaming from every finger.” — Bob Fosse
- “There are points in your life, especially if you have creative ambitions, where selfishness is necessary.” — Kris Kristofferson
- “You don’t want to see ‘plots’. You want to see stories develop.” — Billy Wilder
Recent Comments
- Clary on “All I actually wanted was for my work to be useful.”–Claudius Afolabi Siffre
- Dan on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on R.I.P. Eric Dane: Alex remembers him
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- LongTimeReaderMargot on R.I.P. Eric Dane: Alex remembers him
- Mike Molloy on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
- Bryan Summers on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
- Jincy Willett on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Dan on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
- Reba on Physical Media Booklet Essay: Being scholarly about movies that don’t exist
-
Happy Birthday Charles!
I’ll raise a glass properly a little later.
And it’s a great quote too.. from, dare I say, the master of mime? *ducks*
Yes, indeed. A master of pantomime.
But to put Chaplin into the same category as the jackasses in Central Park who struggle through wind tunnels and give you pretend flowers would be as huge a travesty as putting no-talent poetry-slam performers into the same category as Keats or Shelley.
No. Chaplin is on another level entirely. :)
Ah.. pantomime.. I always did get those two confused :)
It’s okay PeteB, most people do that.
And you know, the brilliant thing about Chaplin was how ahead of his time he was. His films forever changed what it meant to be silent. When Chaplin’s films were played in the movie houses, they very rarely used the organ player. They didn’t need to. His stories were so clear and so moving, they needed no help.
Genius.