Director's Class on Chaplin

I've always thought Chaplin's films would make an excellent subject for one
of those special topics/"director's" classes for a college course. Partly
because of the themes he touches on in each film, and the fact that there
are many to choose from. Unfortunately, perhaps because he is often thought
of as an "actor" or "comedian" his work as director can be overlooked.

Has anyone on this group ever taught a college course strictly on Chaplin's
films? If so, which ones did you screen? What topics did you choose to focus
on in relation to each film screened? How did they go over?

--
Matt Barry
www.myspace.com/mattbarry84
View my films at:
www.grouper.com
Read my essays and articles at:
http://filmreel.blogspot.com

On Jul 14, 3:09 pm, "Matt Barry" <bar....RemoveThis@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> I've always thought Chaplin's films would make an excellent subject for one
> of those special topics/"director's" classes for a college course. Partly
> because of the themes he touches on in each film, and the fact that there
> are many to choose from. Unfortunately, perhaps because he is often thought
> of as an "actor" or "comedian" his work as director can be overlooked.
>
> Has anyone on this group ever taught a college course strictly on Chaplin's
> films? If so, which ones did you screen? What topics did you choose to focus
> on in relation to each film screened? How did they go over?
>
> --
> Matt Barrywww.myspace.com/mattbarry84
> View my films at:www.grouper.com
> Read my essays and articles at:http://filmreel.blogspot.com

I've never taught a course exclusively on Chaplin. One would have to
teach in
a sizable film studies program to have an opportunity to do that, or
teach it as
a specialty course, possibly in an outreach program. When I teach
Chaplin as a
segment in a film comedy course, I try to give a sense of how his work
developed
from the Keystones through the major features. I've used a wide range
of
films for this. I definitely teach him as an auteur.

BFI once, and maybe still does, put out a "great directors" series of
books, but the last
time I looked they still had not done Chaplin.

Connie K.