Charlie Chaplin 1889-1977
Silent film and live music for Modern Times

Beethoven Orchester Bonn
Frank Strobel, conductor

In cooperation with Deutsche Telekom AG
With kind permission: Europäische Filmphilharmonie

In Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin sends his most famous character, his alter ego, on a great journey across the screen one last time: the Tramp. With a razor-sharp moustache, hopelessly out-of-position feet, big eyes and a big heart. As a guinea pig, a plaything of the powers that be in an industrialised, mechanised, dehumanised world. We see him at demonstrations, on roller skates, in various professions and, in one of the most iconic scenes in film history, in a factory of giant cogwheels. And we hear the Tramp – in his last film – for the first time. In 1936, the cinema public heard Charlie Chaplin’s voice for the first time, singing a wonderful nonsense song in a restaurant in this strange hybrid of silent and sound film. Modern Times is not only a profound search for happiness and a cinematic masterpiece, but also an acoustic treat. The score, composed by Chaplin himself, brings the film to life in our mind’s eye once we have seen it. And to make this happiness possible for as many people as possible, we are playing Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece at the Telekom Forum, conducted by Frank Strobel, one of the most important silent film specialists of our time.