Silent Cinema

Modern Times

+ intro

It’s man vs machine in Charlie Chaplin’s beloved classic.

  • Director

    Charles Chaplin

  • With

    Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Godard, Henry Bergman

  • USA 1936. 87min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    U

  • With original soundtrack

This sound/silent hybrid is Chaplin’s last non-dialogue film and a farewell to the little tramp character. Its satirical treatment of the tramp as the (literal) spanner in the works of the mechanised world is both funny and profound, and the much-loved character was accorded iconic status by modernist artists and even portrayed as a cartoon – anticipating the themes of man vs system that run like a thread through this month’s Anime season.