Două discursuri. O singură voce. Charlie Chaplin. 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 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 good 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 airplane 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, liberty will never perish. Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you, 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 like cattle, use you 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; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it is written that the kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us 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 youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To 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. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite! Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hannah! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kindlier world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hannah! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow! Into the light of hope, into the future! The glorious future, that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up!

Până şi din partea unui cinefil dezordonat care încă nu şi-a făcut timp pentru a descoperi toate subtilităţile celei mai puternice figuri cinematografice, a existat o adâncă curiozitate legată de vocea lui Charles Chaplin. Pentru o lume care a descoperit cinematograful prin intermediul „vagabondului gentilom” curiozitatea trebuie să fi fost cu atât mai puternică, cu toate că teama unui eşec mereu o poate stăvili. În 1940, într-o lume instabilă politic şi nu numai, acea voce se aude. Întâi nu înţelegem ce spune, apoi luăm parte la cel mai important discurs din istoria cinematografiei.

În 1937 când lui Charlie i-a apărut ideea filmului ‚The Great Dictator’ nu foarte multă lume îi era alături. Încă neloviţi de întorsătura dramatică pe care nazismul o va crea în istorie, guvernul britanic anunţă că nu va da drumul unui astfel de film. Charlie Chaplin însă nu se lasă, iar la vremea lansării sale, în 1940, opera sa rulează şi în Marea Britanie. Istoria neagră a celui de-al doilea război mondial se scria. De cealaltă parte a baricadei, Germania nazistă şi teritoriile aflate sub influenţa sa nu vor avea acees la un film într-un final ( şi) politic. Cele două discursuri pentru ei nu se ţin. Vocea lui Chaplin îşi amână astfel declaraţia(iile) care ar fi putut schimba istoria.

În primul discurs, Chaplin este liderul Tomaniei. Într-un cadru familiar, într-o limbă germanică inexistentă, Chaplin se foloseşte de pantomimă pentru a simboliza exagerările ideologiei politice ale lui Adolf Hitler. Vocea sa se aude, ca de altfel în tot restul filmului, dar încă nu înţelegem nimic din ceea ce spune. Calităţile sale de actor se descoperă dincolo de glas, în timp ce discursul este tradus. Gesturile sale sunt cele care vorbesc, inflexiunile vocii sunt cele care atrag atenţia, iar faptul că nu există cuvinte pe care să le studiem nu contează.

Ele apar la momentul potrivit, adică la al doilea discurs. Chaplin ne oferă atunci cea mai importantă interpretare a carierei sale folosindu-se de voce, dar nu numai. El rosteşte cel mai bun discurs din istorie, creând un eveniment cinematografic şi politic de o intensitate neegalată.

Nu degeaba acelaşi cinefil dezordonat de la început refuză să privească mult dincolo de acel discurs. Recunoaşte mici defecte, dar ceva nu îl lasă să spună altceva decât : capodoperă.

Film din colecţia Charlie Chaplin de la Dilema Veche.