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moving, in this murky atmosphere, that is more intense even for the occasional dim light that peers out into the soft gloom from attic windows and storerooms, or municipal lights that gleam on the street corners. . . . And through it all I have the feeling that things trivial, portentous, beautiful, sordid, cringing, glorious, simple, epochal, hateful, lovable are happening behind closed doors. I people all those shacks with girls, boys, murders, shrieks, life, beauty". Or the Thames waterside, the atmosphere of the Garrick Club, the physical aspects of poverty — the decayed and broken houses, the dirty littered streets, the little shops loaded with cheap goods. His alert eye selects, and his pen records the cameraworthy angles of everything he sees. All this illuminates a statement he once made to H. G. Wells : "The only way I notice things is on the run. Whatever keenness of perception I have is momentary, fleeting. I observe all in ten minutes, or not at all"; and explains too the imaginative detail of all his films.
Everything in him marks the artist, and nothing more than his endless quest for perfection, his inability ever to be satisfied with the results of his wholehearted, sensitive, meticulous work. Each film completed becomes for him only the stepping stone to the next; and Chaplin's severest critic has been more lenient to his work than he has ever been himself.
Beneath the specific expressions of his artistry — mime, acting, dancing, the making of films — is to be found the poet and the musician. Sam Goldwyn has said of him, "He is a poet — the great poet of the screen. His fierce rebellions against man-made fetters, which would trammel the individual soul in its progress towards complete expression, his sensitiveness to impression, his combination of emotionality and complete detachment — these ally him in spirit with the youngest and fieriest of bards".
The musician, so closely akin to ±e poet, is present in Chaplin. He has made a prolonged study of this other art, until now he has mastered the violin, the 'cello, the organ; and is able to compose his own film music, and conduct its orchestration. Chaplin's energy is protean, and impels him to lead the lives of many artists, creative and interpretative, in his unique person.
c@. Chaplin at Work
MAX LINDER, WHOSE OWN INCOMPARABLE WORK IN THE EARLY DAYS
of French film delighted Chaplin, gave the latter a full accolade as early as 1919 when he wrote, "It is impossible to get any idea of the continuous and highly intelligent effort of Charlie Chaplin in his work. He calls me his teacher, but, for my part, I have been lucky to