Recently I attended the
Birmingham Symphony Hall Friday Night Classics: Charlie Chaplin and I have been
musing about it ever since. Something didn’t feel quite right during the
evening and I think I’ve worked out what and why.
The evening began with four short
animated films accompanied of course by the famous City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra. The films screened were the winner and runners up from a recent
competition that charged young animators across the city to create an animation
to go with music discovered in the library archives. Watching the Bullring bull
rampage along New Street is a sight I may never forget.
The one that stood out most for
me was The Banshee by sixteen-year-old
Kane Rose, the story of a young boy playing in the woods with his own
imagination before a Banshee chases and attacks him. The animation went
perfectly with the score and this film was actually the judges’ special
commendation; however, I did feel that the point of the film was lost on the
audience, which broke into raucous laughter when the monster ate the boy.
Next up was a short Charlie
Chaplin film One A.M. This is a classic
Chaplin comedy. A drunken man arrives home and has various slapstick incidents
with everything from his front door to the staircase, the tiger skin rug to his
fold out bed. The audience definitely enjoyed this one, as did I on the whole,
but this was my first experience with Chaplin’s full on comedy and I did feel
like some of the gags were repeated too many times with not enough variety.
The main feature, Chaplin’s City
Lights did not disappoint. In this one
Chaplin plays a tramp that falls in love with a blind flower girl, who by a
strange turn of fate mistakes the tramp for a wealthy man. The tramp survives a
series of mishaps and different occupations and eventually obtains enough money
to give to the girl for an operation that will restore her sight.
The film then ends with the
flower girl no longer blind and there is a heart-breaking moment when the tramp
first sees her and she does not recognise him, seeing him only as a tramp and
not the benefactor she fell in love with. First she mocks the tramp, then her
good nature allows her to pity him and eventually when she is close enough to
him she recognises him by touch and the couple is reunited.
Having the live music
accompanying the film was an experience I had never had before, but I think in
this instance the power and theme of the visuals just overpowered the
orchestra. With the musicians and conductor in the pit they were not wholly
visible to the audience, and whilst the music was of an exceptional standard
and perfectly accompanied the action on screen, I had to keep reminding myself
that I was listening to live music and not a recorded soundtrack.
So the night of CBSO with Charlie
Chaplin was enjoyable and I came away mostly thrilled with just a couple of
niggles. Firstly, again during the main feature I felt as though the audience
was missing a key point of the film. Some of its more tragic moments were
drowned in laughter and the exceptional acting prowess displayed towards the
end of the movie seemed lost on the viewers who were content to mock and laugh
at inopportune moments. We humans do love to laugh, I concede; perhaps it was
nervous or uncomfortable laughter.
Secondly, I did not feel the
tingling chills and excitement I had expected to feel from the music, as the
music played second fiddle if you like to the movie. I think had the orchestra
been on stage below the screen and in my constant eye line, the whole
experience would have been more moving and more connected. Nonetheless it was a
one off opportunity and I am glad I attended.
Elloise Hopkins.
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