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  • Essay / Comparative analysis of the works of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton

    I found that Chaplin and Keaton had similar works. Although both were very similar, they still had their own presence and style. What I found most interesting about their work was that both men had a sympathy for people from the lower classes and this was reflected in their works. Likewise, their contempt for greedy people and the state apparatus. This comes from the fact that both Chaplin and Keaton grew up in low-income families, with the former experiencing extremely poor conditions in England while growing up. Interestingly, Keaton's works do not feature a protagonist as poor and miserable as Chaplin's. When it comes to playing styles, there is a significant difference in how Chaplin uses his body compared to Keaton. Charlie Chaplin primarily focused on the effects produced by different parts of his body to create a character's emotion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The Bank is a great example of Chaplin using his body to convey the emotions his character is experiencing, as well as to present comedy. In almost all of Chaplin's films, he has an object in his hand when interacting with other characters, which allows for more vivid movements to express the emotion Chaplin is trying to express in a scene. Conversely, Buster Keaton doesn't really rely on much. on body movements. At the start of One Week, Keaton almost looks a little too stiff; this is seen when he removes the cop's baton to stop the car. Even when Keaton spins the stick, it is much less animated and moves more slowly than Chaplin's movements, for example in The Bank. I also noticed that they share a similarity in creating sympathetic characters by behaving in a slightly naive, almost indifferent manner. I felt like Charlie Chaplin relied a lot on the detailed effects produced by his body, so the framing of his films had to be tighter than Keaton's. They were also photographed, if memory serves, with a wider lens. Keaton did not use narrow mounts and used a long lens, because he chose not to rely too much on his body movements; he wanted to show the physical relationship between his characters and other, often larger, objects. The staging and blocking of scenes within each of these two were largely influenced by their respective acting choices. Buster relies more on staging and blocking simply because it relies more on the relationships between characters and the objects they are near in a scene. He just needs more orchestrated scenes to pull off comedic tricks. Charlie Chaplin's blocking and directing is on a much smaller scale since he is very physically involved in producing comic effects. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay I think the respective stories of each of the two men are also worth noting. This, again, is heavily influenced by their acting choices. For Chaplin, this meant his stories focused more on a few characters, allowing him to focus more on detailed body movements. Keaton, on the other hand, focuses on larger-scale stories that require more space to show the physical relationships between).).