A Woman of Paris is Chaplin's only non-comic silent feature and frankly I miss the comedy; it kept him more low-key, more astringent, more disciplined in his pacing, and it was a goad to his inventiveness. Chaplin's ideas of the moral corruption of the rich are maybe the funniest thing about the movie: he presents "champagne truffles" as the height of '20s decadence when nowadays they'd be a special episode on the Food Network. Edna Purviance is good but not especially memorable in the eponymous role; Adolphe Menjou, of course, insouciantly walks away with the movie. He even gets the last word.
No comments:
Post a Comment