BAck tO tHe fUturE?
oru12ci2i-ru | Brooklyn, NY United States | 11/15/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Three reasons why you should have this CD: 1. In love with the wish to return to innocence, or 2. In love with history/time, or 3. In love with Charlie Chaplin.
For me #1 is the most applicable. Listen with your mind to have a sense of a quiet smile and innocence cover you. If you are down and out you do find that peaceful state of mind for yourself. If you are in a good mood you get a feeling that life is good with all the ups and downs or as Charlie Chaplin would have put it, "It's not the ups and downs that make life difficult, it's the jerks!" So what the heck, life is short - be happy with the goodness around or find it to breed it, to use this album as the score! Exaggerating here? Chaplin did take it very seriously when he showed us, Laughter is the best medicine..."
This is a very good C.D.
Chime Braithwaite | United States | 11/27/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The songs are the originals, and not remastered. The 'Nonsense Song' from Modern Times where Chaplin sang gibberish is shortened. The last songs on city lights, when the girl finally sees her benefactor, is not included on the C.D. I really loved that ending. Nevertheless, this C.D. get's five stars from me because I'm a fan of Charlie Chaplin.
I felt that for some reason I shouldn't have opened it to find all these things out; instead save it for a collectors item. But I guess I'll just get another one for that."
Memorable Chaplin music he composed for his classic films
Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 12/11/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In addition to writing, directing and starring in his greatest films, Charlie Chaplin also composed the music for many of them as well, and while the title of this album comes from my personal favorite, 1931's "City Lights," it includes music from four other classic films as well (okay, three other classic films). What is interesting here is how often you will recognize the music and have the scene in that film come to mind. You then pick up the album, check out the track number and find the description is exactly of the scene that you though it was. This is not by any means a complete collection (you do not have the theme to "Limelight," for example), but it is certainly representative of his main body of work as a composer for his own films.
For "City Lights" (1931, tracks 1-9) it is the memories of the blind flower girl and Chaplin as a boxer than stands out. Next comes "Modern Times" (1936 tracks 10-16) with the distinction sounds of the workers demonstration, the nonsense song (where Chaplin "speaks" for the first time in a film), and the finale, which would eventually become the song "Smile." We then go back in time to "The Gold Rush" (1925, tracks 17-20) with the "Road to Fortune" tune and the immortal "Ballet of the Bread Rolls." "The Circus" (1928, tracks 21-32) has the most offerings, but for me is the least distinguished score. The album ends with a pair of offerings from "The Great Dictator" (1940, tracks 33-34), including the overture.
Chaplin was not as great of a composer as he was a comedian, but when it came to writing music he was certainly competent and he took as much care with writing music as he did with crafting his scenes. When the talkie era began Chaplin resisted it in terms of allowing his character to speak: The Tramp is not "heard" until he sings a nonsense song in "Modern Times" and does not speak actual words until "The Great Dictator," although he does gibberish for other characters (e.g., the speeches at the unveiling of the statute in "City Lights"). But he did use sound when it became available, both for music and for sound effects. What he hung on for as long as possible was the art of pantomime. Listening to the music independent of the visual images is like looking at still photographs rather than motion pictures."
Track Listings (34) - Disc #1