Charlie Chaplin (16th April, 1889 – 25th December, 1977)

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

Charlie Chaplin

Enjoy the Chaplin Masterpiece Trailer

You can spend and fully enjoy a lot of time with  excerpts from Chaplin´s films on Chaplin film excerpts on You Tube

I can´t count how often I have watched the most famous scene from "Gold Rush Rolls" - without growing tired of watching.

Charlie Chaplin - famous all over the world-  was one of the very few  unique one of a kind artists, always creating something new, bringing joy, many smiles and laughters to the people and influenced with his 'Tramp' character many, many other artists. (It is told Chaplin once entered a "Chaplin look-alike" competition and did not make the final round.)

The tramp character character is possibly one of the most imitated on all levels of entertainment.

                         picture source:http://1.bp.blogspot.com

Michael Jackson saw himself in Charlie Chaplin....in life- story as well as in star image. 

The London Evening Standard reported that  Michael Jackson was in the process of rehearsing Chaplin’s song SMILE at the time of his death. Michael´s version of "Smile" was the final track on HIStory. His favorite line from the song was "smile, though your heart is breaking" as it was a mantra he lived by himself. Jermaine Jackson did sing a version of the song at Michael's memorial on July 7th 2009 at The Staples Center.

picture source: http://www.jackson.ch

Charlie Chaplin  is mostly well known (and loved!) for his work during the silent film era.
In his first talking picture, The Great Dictator, an act of defiance against Nazism, we find one of the most impressing  and moving timeless speeches. At the end of the film Charlie Chaplin  dropped out of his comic character to address the audience directly in a speech [transscript below] denouncing dictatorship, greed, hate, and intolerance, in favour of liberty and human brotherhood. Chaplin was accused of "un-American activities" as a suspected communist.




"It´s not socialist - its not capitalist - its not communist - its just human."

~ Comment  of Youtube user sirwence 

on Charlie Chaplin´s final speech in "The Great Dictator"

Charlie Chaplin´s "Speech Of Humanity" in "The Great Dictator",

Below please find  the transscript of Charlie Chaplin’s moving oration from The Great Dictator.

"I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…

Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness."

Our international It´s-All-For_love-Webteam bows in gratitude to Sir Charles Chaplin, for all the joy,  he brought to us through so many years, connecting generations and people all over the world with their laughter and smiles together. He had both:the humour of a young boy and the wisdom of an old man with much experience in life.  

We are thankful for  the inspiration he was, is and will go on to be. 

His perfection, humanity and love are limeless...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


If you like what you see please share the video any way you can and pass the message on. (Translations below) 

 The Humanitarian Speech with Albanian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Amharic subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Arabic subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Bosnian/Serbian subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Bulgarian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Chinese subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Croatian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Czech subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Dutch subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Estonian subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Fillipino subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Finnish subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with French subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with German subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Greek subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Hebrew subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Hungarian subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Italian subtitels
The Humanitarian Speech with Japanese subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Korean subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Macedonian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Polish subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Portuguese subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Romanian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Russian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Slovenian subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Spanish subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Thai subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Turkish subtitles
The Humanitarian Speech with Vietnamese subtitles

Thanks and credits to thelakeysisters. :)
who started this international video-project.

Original excerpt from "The Great Dictator" (Humanitarian speech)

More Charlie Chaplin articles on this blog:

• from 2010
• from 2011

Where there is love, I'll be there....

Walking to Emmaus by Fritz von Uhde
On the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"

"What things?" he asked.

"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24%3A13-35&version=NIV

Herta Mueller and Ai Weiwei - make a change.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and his fight for the "Lost Children" was introduced on this blog earlier here: Remembering the Lost Children in the fatal earthquake of Sichuan 2008

On Thursday he and Nobel prize winner Herta Mueller (Romanian-German) were discussing politics and their background growing up / living in a totalitarian system and telling the audience about their personal experience and what they their motivation is for resistance.

The event was part of "Lit.Cologne" a large annual literature event with readings and events all over the city of Cologne, Germany.

The discussion reflects so much of Michael's message and I can see a reflection in the constitution of our blog team here -> Romania, China, Germany.

It shows how much impact artists have in their constant fight for their message of changing the world for the better or of "making that change" as Michael would say.

No matter what the background or the kind of Art may be it helps to raise people's awareness and hope. And strongly but surely a change is gonna come. The political dimension of Art that has a meaning is very strong. I am glad there are people like Herta and Ai out there and noticed all over the world.

We learned so much from Michael, let's learn from them as well!

Here's a more detailed article about the event:

Chinese artist and Nobel laureate share views on totalitarianism (click to open)

I especially loved this part:

"Asked if there could be any hope at all, he assured his listeners he lived in daily hope that new technologies, especially the Internet, would change the situation and bring democracy to China.

Herta Mueller saw Romania’s brutal regime fall. Ai Weiwei hopes he too will see China's one-party system fall."


We have to speak out for it in the name of Michael, the children, the world.

WE ARE THE WORLD!!!!!!


------

Addition March 14:

The L.O.V.E. blog team would like to thank Ai Weiwei for retweeting the link to this post on his Twitter account.