What is Cinema by Andre Bazin

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Professor
Course
Date
Film and Reading Analysis
Film: Modern Times
Reading: What is Cinema by Andre Bazin
Central arguments in the movie and the reading
Modern Times is a silent comedy film set in the Great Depression era. Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed it and was also the starring in the film produced in 1936. It tells the life of a factory worker who is not lucky in life. Chaplin works in a modern factory where work overwhelms him and gets unconscious. He becomes jobless after he was discharged from the hospital. Unluckily he is mistakenly arrested for being a communist agitator. Chaplin finds life in jail better since he is unemployed, after all. The film Modern Times explores developments in technology and how people adjusted to the developments ("Charlie Chaplin | Tempos Modernos (Modern Times) - 1936 - Legendado").
What is Cinema, on the other hand, is a critique of the film. Andre Bazin criticizes how comedy plays out in films. He explains what film should be saying that only sound, invisible editing, and deep focus defines a film. According to him, comedy should be natural without enhancements or with very mild editing that an audience cannot notice (Bazin, 146). Two different movements in silent comedy films are montage and the plastic composition of an image. Bazin says sound does not need to support images in silent films where the image plays out the comedy well. Visual means entirely reveal the plot and the atmosphere of the film. Bazin is entirely against any means that can be used to enhance or manipulate the audience's perception in a film.
The film and the reading relate because the central argument is on the silent comedy film. Chaplin is a silent comedian while Bazin advocates for the "silence" in a silent comedy. However, the film is not very silent as Chaplin performs a song, and when he loses his lyrics, he improvises and makes it perfect again.
Social, cultural, historical and political issues in the film
Modern Times explores some social and historical issues. Some of the social issues include love and society, while historical issues are the evolution of technology and how people recovered from the Great Depression.
Chaplin falls in love with Paulette Goddard. He first met her running away from the police who wanted to arrest him for stealing a loaf, and Chaplin took the blame. This first instance is not loved because Chaplin was desperate to go back to jail where life was a bit easy for him ("Charlie Chaplin | Tempos Modernos (Modern Times) - 1936 - Legendado"). The two, however, fall in love later and help each other through tough times.
Chaplin faces a tough time because he is a man. Society expects him to be strong and not run away from life issues. The expectations are not fair to Chaplin, who wishes to spend his time in jail to avoid society's exp...