Stummfilmkonzert: Modern Times by Chaplin, C. S., Van (2024/2024), Dirigent Adrian Prabava, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Dortmund, Duitsland

Charles Chaplin's Modern Times is an unsurpassed silent film classic that remains relevant to this day . In the film, made in 1936 after Chaplin's many years of preparatory work, the actor slips into his famous role as a clumsy, likeable tramp for the last time to condemn social misery and the automation of the world of work. The background of the film is the era of the “Great Depression” in the USA, which was dominated by mass unemployment and poverty in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929 and the global economic crisis. The plot shows us Chaplin's tramp first as an assembly line worker who is mistakenly imprisoned as a labor leader before he falls in love, works as a waiter in a bar and finally, together with his great love, embodied by Paulette Goddard, who married Chaplin shortly after filming ended faces an uncertain future. Modern Times uniquely balances comedy, tragedy, bittersweet romance and horror at the conditions. Numerous scenes and images from the film, such as Chaplin being trapped between the gears of a gigantic machine or the wheelchair ride in a deserted department store, always narrowly avoiding a crash, have entered the collective memory and gained iconic status. The film's effect is largely based on the precisely calculated interplay between the film images and the music, which was precisely imagined by Chaplin and recorded into notes with the help of extremely professional studio musicians. In painstaking, detailed work that lasted 14 months, this film score was restored and converted into a version that could be performed live with an orchestra. In this form, Modern Times comes to life in an unexpected way - far more than a movie. FILMPHILHARMONIC EDITION Film courtesy of Roy Export Company SAS, music courtesy of Bourne Music Publishers