We just came back from The Gold Rush, which is most definitely a comic classic – and we had the Trinity organ scholar playing along, with some themes from Chaplin’s version and some well-known themes mixed in, which really added to the experience!
Brilliant, brilliant physical comedy from the master; I’m still laughing now about the tipping house and the bread roll dance routine, but what was really great about it was the way there was a story, and there were characters, and there were moments of great pathos, and tension, and the little tramp really is absolutely adorable. Georgia certainly didn’t deserve him!
Also fun to see that even if Christmas/New Year traditions have, comedy certainly hasn’t changed – but then, it’s not as though The Canterbury Tales, or even parts of The One Thousand And One Nights aren’t hilarious.
It’s easy to imagine people of the past as entirely different from us, more austere or simpler than we are – but people are just people, which is why great works from the past remain great, no matter when we turn to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment