Man vs. machine! And the winner is every comedy fan when Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp confronts assembly line woes in this classic, chosen in 1998 as one of the American Film Institute’s Top-100 American Films.
The Little Tramp punches in and wigs out inside a factory where gizmos like an employee-feeding machine may someday make the lunch hour last just 15 minutes. Bounced into the ranks of the unemployed, he teams with a street waif (Paulette Goddard) to pursue bliss and a paycheck, finding misadventures as a roller-skating night watchman, a singing waiter whose hilarious song is gibberish, a jailbird and more. In the end, as Tramp and waif walk arm and arm into an insecure future, we know they’ve found neither bliss nor a paycheck but, more importantly, each other. The times and satire remain timeless in Modem Times.
Modern Times
- All-new digital transfer from Cineteca Bologna picture restoration.
- Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as Original 1.0 Mono.
- Interactive Menus
- Scene Access
- Languages: English (5.1), French, Italian (1.0)
- Subtitles: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, Dutch
- Hearing Impaired: English, French, Italian Special
- Chaplin Today – Modern Times 26 Mins. Documentary by Philippe Truffault with the participation of Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne.
- Introduction by David Robinson 6 Mins. Chaplin’s biographer sets the film in its historical and cinematic context.
- Deleted scenes 5 Mins. Charlie’s nonsense song in its complete version, including the final verse. Also: a scene in which Charlie tries to cross the street,
- Karaoke 3 Mins. The mystery of Charlie’s nonsense song solved in its Karaoke version.
- Smile, by Liberace (1956) 4 Mins. Chaplin’s most famous theme song, from Modem Times, sung by Liberace.
- Behind the Scenes in the Machine Age (1931) 42 Mins.U.S. Government-sponsored educational film: a hymn to assembly line labour in the United States in the 1930s.
- Symphony in F (1940) 9 Mins. A promotional musical film commissioned by Ford, whose assembly lines inspired Modern Times
- For the First Time (1967)10 Mins.Cuban documentary short on the reaction of peasants while watching their first movie, thanks to a traveling projectionist showing Modem Times.
- Photo Gallery 250 production stills, deleted scenes and preparatory sketches.
- Poster Gallery
- Theatrical trailers 6 Mins.
- Scenes from films in the Chaplin Collection 23 Mins.
