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it required for its development. There is never anything hasty or unfinished in any part of Chaplin's work, in spite of his impetuousness.
His contribution to film is immeasurable. Of the pioneers in America, he was the first true creator in the new medium; and the only one to apply, from the beginning, film technique to film craft. In the earliest films, he stands out as the only player who did not open and shut his mouth in what seemed a silent parody of human speech, who did not use extravagant and uncontrolled gesture to express emotion, as did all the others. Chaplin used his face and his body, all its movement, and its stillness, to express his character in terms of pure film. He set about his own independent voyage of discovery, and moulded his medium according to the exigencies of his creative expression. Because of his initially right approach, he was the creator of his art, and invented the form it took. With him, silent film reached its highest and ultimate limits.
A clock taken to pieces is not a clock and does not go: a ballet analysed in terms of decor, costume, music, choreography is neither a ballet nor an aesthetic experience. So a book that analyses a legendary figure and its creator tends to destroy their essential quality. The danger is that he who takes the clock to pieces cannot put it together again; he who takes Charlie to pieces to find out what makes him go may lose sight of the whole creation. Yet Charlie is, however handled, indestructible; and able to pick up the pieces himself, through the irresistible force of his own personality, and the affection and memories of the millions who grew up with him.
t@^ His Lasting Fame
TWENTY YEARS AGO, EMIL LUDWIG, THE WELL-KNOWN PUBLICIST
and author, interviewed Chaplin for the Viennese newspaper, Neue Freie Presse. He was immediately struck with Chaplin's air of tranquillity, which he had not expected, since Chaplin had never shown any signs before of that inner calm which brings with it a tranquil presence; and then by his mental quality.
For Ludwig, part of Chaplin's fascination lay in the fact that here was a poor boy who became a millionaire through playing one role only, that of a down-at-heel tramp; another part expressed itself in terms of rhetoric — "What is the fame of Gandhi compared with him who has shaken the world as only the figure of Christ has done before him? There is no one yet who has sustained such world-wide fame, and yet remains so simple and unaffected".
These are large claims: yet it is certain that Chaplin's universal appeal, together with his overwhelming artistry, explain the deep and