L'Hommage au Silence

I'm watching Charlie's look of disgust. The horse has just shit in the street. His eyes follow the horse, his shovel follows the shit. He marches on. Before him a team of mules cross the street in front of him... He turns around. Three steps further on an elephant passes by... His eyes register everything.

He's wearing a pith helmet, and a white uniform.

Turner Classic Movies is doing this thing this month where they play one actor's (well, actresses are actors...) movies each day; from dawn til dusk, and well, beyond.

I think Saturday was Charlie's day. I picked City Lights to try to watch. So far I've taken it in installments. It is a strange and beauteous movie... The scene with the horseshit almost didn't register, well, not until the elephant passed by, so I rewound. The second time around, watching his eyes follow the horse, my eyes started to water with laughter. The scene takes 15 seconds. I couldn't stop laughing... I had to run over here.... Remember the moment.

You can tell he knows that talkies are going to kill his medium. That is the most poignant feeling, empathy, I'm getting here, his face, so funny, is really so sad... This, he says, is what you are throwing on the trash heap, in with the horseshit, and the muleshit, and the elephant shit, and the rest of it.

But he doesn't lament.... The music is his. The music is a story unto itself, and is a celebrations of sound... So he doesn't lament.

And Alice perked her ears when he swallowed the whistle... It was like the movie had entered the room. For the whistle scene takes 45 seconds or so, and sadly, well, funnily, my dog didn't understand, but she reacted, she reacted exactly like the other members of the room, like, what the hell is that...; the other members of the room, being those inside my television screen...