VN AfterTaste

JULY 11 - 17, Friday - Thursday at 7, 9:30pm (plus Sat & Sun at 2, 4:30)
NEW 35MM PRINT!
MONSIEUR VERDOUX NorthWest Film Forum, Seattle
(Charles Chaplin, USA, 1947, 35mm, 123 min)

Anyone who accuses Charlie Chaplin of too much sentimentality clearly hasn’t seen MONSIEUR VERDOUX, arguably the crown jewel in the Chaplin canon. Years ahead of its time, this “comedy of murders” is Chaplin’s most audacious and atypical film and remains one of his most underappreciated. James Agee took three columns to write about it, even though it had already left theaters by the time the third column was published. Jonathan Rosenbaum named it “one of the greatest American films of all time” and railed when the AFI left it off their “Greatest Comedies” ballot. Luminaries such as critic Lotte Eisner and filmmakers Federico Fellini, Jacques Rivette and Luchino Visconti have named it one of the ten best films of all time.

Wikipedia: Monsieur Verdoux

The script for this film, the idea for it given by Orson Welles, was inspired by the case of serial killer Henri Désiré Landru. Welles sought to direct the film with Chaplin as star, but Chaplin backed out at the last minute, on the grounds that he’d never been directed before and wasn’t willing to start. Instead, Chaplin bought the script from Welles and rewrote parts of it, crediting Welles only with the idea. The film’s premise is that “murder is the logical extension of capitalism". The lead character kills to make money, hence he is not (in his eyes) a murderer.