Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Keaton :: Chaplin

I was thinking on the difference between Chaplin and Keaton and it occurred to me that I've never seen Keaton dance. Chaplin, on the other hand, is always on the verge of breaking out into dance. In the two clips from Modern Times, for example, he "humans" the machine by moving at a rhythm that messes with that of the machines--a break-flow system, if you will (think of the squirts of oil). In the song he performs, the first time the Tramp is heard, dance is used as a delaying tactic when the words go flying off his wrists, than as a kind of gestural augmentation to his nonsense ("nonsensuous"?) vocal acrobatics.

And then it occurred to me that I have seen Keaton dance. I don't think this counts, however (about 42 secs in):
From Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

And here are two other very famous dance sequences from Chaplin:

1) From The Great Dictator (1940)

2) From The Gold Rush (1925)

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