Day 22 - 01/22/2019

  Continuing his journey against the current, Charlie Chaplin continues with his popular silent films in which talkies were strongly established. Following his other silent film, City Lights, Chaplin directs, writes and stars a comedy romance with a flow that tells a smooth and concise story.

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  The Little Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) gets in trouble with his work at the factory, eventually ending up in prison. Meanwhile, a Gamin (Paulette Goddard) struggles to find food for her family and a job, struggling with the unemployment of the crisis. Her father (Stanley Blystone) is murdered during a protest of the unemployed, leaving her and her sisters to be taken by the orphanage. Unwilling to comply, she runs a way and bumps into the Little Tramp, soon after he managed to help the prison guards and was set free. Together, they get to know each other better and dream about a better tomorrow. 

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  Funnily enough, most positive aspects are directly applicable from City Light's review, such as the story being simple and told day by day, a step at a time. This form of storytelling contributes towards the heartwarming and fresh progression of every new scene, giving a transparent feel to our main characters. Also, behind the Tramp's funny actions, the character is moved by his desire to help, in this case by the girl that is helped by him over and over. The opening scene is dynamic and a great critique to the alienation process of the industry worker, something highly relevant and applicable at the time.

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  Sadly, after the factory and prison scenes, the story gets lost a bit, losing the strong dedication of our protagonist until being convinced by the Gamin. These opening scenes are so satisfactory that once they're over, the film can't pick up the energy it started on. The Gamin is also constantly reminding and resembling an energetic kid, leaving the overall romantic relationship between her and the Tramp at times over the top. 

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  Finally, watching silent films is always a good reminder on how when working with less, generally outputting more due to the higher effort being necessary to maintain the standard. This is not only shown by Chaplin's success as well as modern time movies' failure (pun intended). At last, 7.6 stones out of 10 seems to be a fitting grade for the nostalgia of Charlie Chaplin.