Silent No More

The image of Charlie Chaplin is iconic.

Everyone knows the mustache, hat and suit combination of his most famed character, The Tramp.

But the late silent film star’s role in the history of cinema and his considerable skills as a filmmaker and composer are less widely known, says Frank Scheide, a University of Arkansas assistant professor and Chaplin scholar.

“(Students) think of him as a silent clown. As we get farther away from those times, they say, ‘A silent film? That sounds really ancient,’” Scheide says.

Instead, Scheide argues silent films are a way to appreciate nonverbal communication and that Chaplin’s films are the perfect introduction to the genre.

Additional studies in that field are contained within an ongoing symposium at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art which explores the changing nature of film, art and other cultural mediums. The symposium was coordinated in conjunction with the museum, the university’s communication department, the Charlie Chaplin Film Office, the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Tennessee and the annual Buster Keaton Celebration. The event began Wednesday and continues through Sunday with a screening of the silent film “City Lights” accompanied by a live rendition of its score.

The Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the music as the movie is shown on a large screen.

Scheide says Chaplin is sometimes overlooked as a composer. As movies with sound - often referred to as “talkies” - became popular late in his filmmaking career,Chaplin responded. But he couldn’t imagine The Tramp speaking, so he wrote scores instead.

But others certainly did incorporate voices into their films, and a panel at Crystal Bridges this evening discusses changes in film and the land they depicted. Called “This Land: Picturing a Changing America in the 1930s and 1940s,” the panel features university researchers in the fields of history, art, journalism, architecture and more.

The symposium is actually the second in a collaboration between Scheide and theBuster Keaton Celebration, which takes place in Iola, Kan.

That event runs concurrently with the symposium in Bentonville and explores the comedian’s connections to Chaplin.

The events all conclude with the Philharmonic’s presentation of “City Lights” at the Arend Arts Center.

Scheide has watched similar presentations on a few occasions; it’s not often a full orchestra performs the pieces, he says.

Like classical music or silent films, sometimes it only takes a little exposure to fall for the genre. And that’s what he hopes happens this weekend in Bentonville.