I’m not entirely sure that I can agree with Chaplin on pain…although I do agree on the principle. I think it depends on what kind of pain you’re talking about. Sometimes I think I can and should laugh at everything, otherwise the sting of reality will eat me alive. I won’t laugh at someone else’s pain, even if I think it’s a self-serving, their fault type of thing. No one should laugh at the pain of another. I suppose it’s okay if the pain holder is laughing… but that’s not a concrete rule.
Chaplin was able to take the poverty of his youth and spin it into cinematic gold…contrary to what some believe, he never forgot where he came from…if he had forgotten, he never would have gone where he did. I’m by no means a Chaplin scholar… I’m a squirrel. What I have seen, being mildly forced to watch Chaplin’s flickering little masterpieces with Frank, is that Chaplin never depicted the poor as pure clowns. Whatever the premise was, no matter how far fetched, there was always an air of dignity to having nothing… but knowing that their situation could change….even though it seemed like it wasn’t, the present was just temporary.
Give yourself a break.
I don’t know what this has to do with Rob Base. Forgive a squirrel…
