While working for Keystone Charlie started writing and directing his own movies as well as starring in them and that's when the light of Chaplin began to blink and eventually was destined to shine forever. After leaving Mack Sennett he joined Essanay where he worked for a year or so; during his tenure with them he met beautiful and very talented Edna Purviance who became Chaplin's first leading lady and worked closely with her on many of his movies until 1923. Edna was a gem, gentle yet very self-aware and confident on screen she always represented the heart and soul in Charlie's masterpieces among which is his only Essanay entry in my collection - "Burlesque on Carmen" (1915).
This silent picture is one of the first parody movies where Chaplin puts his own vision not only on Cecil B. DeMille's version of "Carmen" that came out the same year but on the legendary opera by Georges Bizet as well. The story is as old as the Earth: a boy falls in love with the girl only to realize later she was only in it for her own profit and is in fact in love with another man. "Carmen" is a romantic tragedy by its nature but Chaplin transforms it into farce with many gags, absurd set-ups and situations still maintaining to keep the tragic parts, highlighting them once in a while but not too much. Pure Chaplin.
By 1915 Charlie is yet to develop his own unique style but he is already a very skillful director, a witty writer and a great performer. By exploring Chaplin's filmography from the first to the last you can see his evolution, how far he has gone in just a year and the heights that he accomplished. But even the sky was no limit for him.
This silent picture is one of the first parody movies where Chaplin puts his own vision not only on Cecil B. DeMille's version of "Carmen" that came out the same year but on the legendary opera by Georges Bizet as well. The story is as old as the Earth: a boy falls in love with the girl only to realize later she was only in it for her own profit and is in fact in love with another man. "Carmen" is a romantic tragedy by its nature but Chaplin transforms it into farce with many gags, absurd set-ups and situations still maintaining to keep the tragic parts, highlighting them once in a while but not too much. Pure Chaplin.
By 1915 Charlie is yet to develop his own unique style but he is already a very skillful director, a witty writer and a great performer. By exploring Chaplin's filmography from the first to the last you can see his evolution, how far he has gone in just a year and the heights that he accomplished. But even the sky was no limit for him.