chaplin Keystones in classroom

constance.kuriyama RemoveThis @ttu.edu 5/13/06 12:10 PM

> _Modern Times_ was the hit of my film comedy
> course last semester, which covered everything
> from Edison's _Kiss_ to _As Good As It Gets_.
> The students, with one exception, were in their
> late teens and early twenties.
>
> _The Kid_ went over quite well also.

Those two have always been very good for me as well. But then I never had a
Chaplin film do poorly for an audience.
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Matt Barry 5/18/06 4:58 PM

> That's good to hear it went over well. The Keystones definitely have a
> certain energy and raw humor to them that I think is still very appealing
> today. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find decent prints of many of these
> shorts, but as long as they can get past that, the students will probably
> enjoy seeing more. I think it's great you have the chance to expose them to
> these films they might not otherwise see. If the Keystones went over well,
> the Mutuals should go over great. What other films have you shown them in
> the past?


Since my first post they have seen Easy Street and The Rink and they both
went over very well. I should state that these are 16mm prints, not DVD.
 >> Stay informed about: chaplin Keystones in classroom 

As I may have implied by my post, in my experience the features go over
best.
The Keysontes tend to get the least audible response, but I find that
students
remember and often mention what they saw in them, so they be no means
disregard them.

I've never shown _His Trysting Place_, which is certainly one of the
better
Keystones. I usually wind up showing _Kid Auto Races_ and _The
Rounders_,
mainly for convenience in illustrating Chaplin's rapid developmenet.

The popularity of _Kid Auto_ is a mystery to me, since it is
essentially a one-
joke film that is very roughly patched together, but so many versions
of it survive
that there's no doubt it was one of the staple Chaplin shorts.

I don't usually show films because of the inconvenience of providing a
16mm
projector. I own four of them, but my department has none.

Connie K.
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constance.kuriyama.TakeThisOut@ttu.edu 5/21/06 12:58 PM

> As I may have implied by my post, in my experience the features go over
> best.
> The Keysontes tend to get the least audible response, but I find that
> students
> remember and often mention what they saw in them, so they be no means
> disregard them.

Now you must remember that these are special ed kids in an alternative
setting. There are criminal elements, gang affiliations, severe
disturbances, and many come from terrible environments. They respond to
the comedy without delving much more deeply. This is not a film
appreciation course, I just show films each week on Friday as a treat for
good behavior. It proves that old classics have strong appeal to different
ages, races, attitudes, and classes still today.

> I've never shown _His Trysting Place_, which is certainly one of the
> better
> Keystones. I usually wind up showing _Kid Auto Races_ and _The
> Rounders_,
> mainly for convenience in illustrating Chaplin's rapid developmenet.
>
> The popularity of _Kid Auto_ is a mystery to me, since it is
> essentially a one-
> joke film that is very roughly patched together, but so many versions
> of it survive
> that there's no doubt it was one of the staple Chaplin shorts.

I use Kid Auto in the class to demonstrate how little was necessary to
create a film during cinema's infancy. They always find it interesting and
funny.

> I don't usually show films because of the inconvenience of providing a
> 16mm
> projector. I own four of them, but my department has none.

Yep, I bring one of my own and store it in the classroom. I also use my own
films.

JN
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Constance wrote:
> The popularity of _Kid Auto_ is a mystery to me, since it is
> essentially a one-joke film that is very roughly patched
> together, but so many versions of it survive that there's no
> doubt it was one of the staple Chaplin shorts.

I love this film and it's easily one of my favorite Keystones (if not THE
favorite).
 >> Stay informed about: chaplin Keystones in classroom 

"FredT" <fwtep.DeleteThis@hotmail_DELETE.com> wrote in message
news:eDHdg.36$ho6.7@trnddc07...
> Constance wrote:
> > The popularity of _Kid Auto_ is a mystery to me, since it is
> > essentially a one-joke film that is very roughly patched
> > together, but so many versions of it survive that there's no
> > doubt it was one of the staple Chaplin shorts.
>
> I love this film and it's easily one of my favorite Keystones (if not THE
> favorite).

Doug's restoration of this is very cool. I'd like to think that the
upcoming official restoration will be as complete. But that might be folly
on my part...
 >> Stay informed about: chaplin Keystones in classroom 

James Neibaur wrote:
> Matt Barry 5/18/06 4:58 PM
>
> > That's good to hear it went over well. The Keystones definitely have a
> > certain energy and raw humor to them that I think is still very appealing
> > today. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find decent prints of many of these
> > shorts, but as long as they can get past that, the students will probably
> > enjoy seeing more. I think it's great you have the chance to expose them to
> > these films they might not otherwise see. If the Keystones went over well,
> > the Mutuals should go over great. What other films have you shown them in
> > the past?
>
>
> Since my first post they have seen Easy Street and The Rink and they both
> went over very well. I should state that these are 16mm prints, not DVD.

There's a certain fun to watching the films on 16mm on a screen. One of
the first "live" presentations of silent films I saw was at the local
library, when I was ten years old, and they did a "Golden Age of
Comedy" type thing for the start of summer vacation after school ended
(all 16mm stuff). They showed some fun silent stuff-"Gertie the
Dinosaur", "A Trip to the Moon", Disney's "Steamboat Willie", etc., but
the best part was Chaplin's "Easy Street". It was fun seeing that with
a bunch of people, and I couldn't help but notice that it was a lot
better than watching it on the Madacy videotapes I'd been given.

That's a nice chance those students are getting being shown these films
properly.

Matt
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