Director
Charlie Chaplin
Leading Actors/Actresses
Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Allan Garcia, Stanley Sandford
Genre
Comedy, Slapstick, Silent
Language
English
Awards
Date of Release
1936
Producer
Charlie Chaplin
Setting and Context
An industrialized city during a time of economic depression (intended to reflect the Great Depression)
Narrator and Point of View
Omniscient third person
Tone and Mood
Comedic tone, but addresses serious socio-economic subjects
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist is The Tramp (and The Gamin) and the Antagonists are the machines, the police, the factory owner, and the juvenile system.
Major Conflict
Chaplin's Little Tramp struggles to survive in a world that seems pitted against him and those of his class. The Gamin struggles similarly, and has to avoid the child welfare officers.
Climax
The child welfare officers show up to take away The Gamin just as she and The Tramp have earned steady work.
Foreshadowing
While the Tramp accidentally becomes drunk during the robbery at the department store, a cut back to the Gamin sleeping soundly upstairs foreshadows that the Tramp's drunkenness will make him forget to wake the Gamin up in the morning as he had promised.
Understatement
When the Gamin says "it's not Buckingham Palace" while talking about the shack she found for them, it is an example of understatement.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
Chaplin used matte glass paintings to shoot through in order to create the visual effect of him roller skating near the broken rail in the department store. He would also use hanging miniatures in order to give a much larger perception of the factory. The miniatures would be five or so feet in reality, but when hung before the camera in a particular way they gave the appearance of taking up an entire factory floor.
Allusions
Chaplin alludes to the looming control of the factory owner and managers over the workers by having the president of the factory appear over a closed circuit television system throughout the factory.
Paradox
The Tramp is offered an early release from prison because of good behavior, but what he really wants is to stay in prison because he is safer there than out in the streets fending for himself. The paradox is that he would prefer to have fewer freedoms in exchange for consistent meals and a roof over his head, but the prison insists on a reward that he does not want.
Parallelism
The stories of the Tramp and the Gamin are shown with parallel editing (and their stories have many similarities) for the first part of the film, before they finally meet when the Gamin steals a loaf of bread and crashes into the Tramp.
