‘Modern Times’ to Screen With Live Music

Sixty-four years after its release, Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” will finally be screened with a live orchestral accompaniment.

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has chosen Chaplin’s last silent for its 11th annual Silent Film Gala, which takes place Saturday at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The event serves as the world premiere of the film’s newly restored score by guest conductor Timothy Brock.

The pristine print has been flown in for the performance from the Cinematheque in Bologna, Italy. Chaplin’s children, Jane and Sidney, are scheduled to be in attendance. And Oscar-winner and silent film buff Dustin Hoffman, the honorary chair of the event, will introduce the proceedings.

“I am always awed by the fact that I am part of an art form that isn’t that much older than I am,” says Hoffman, 62, who has attended several of the Silent Film Galas.

“The L.A. Chamber Orchestra allows us to hear and see [these films]. To me, it’s extraordinary. But I am a different generation than the kids who seem to dictate what films gross the most on the first weekend. There is nothing more thrilling [to me] than to witness one of these babies in the way they were meant to be.”

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Hoffman is also amazed at how accomplished silent film stars like Chaplin were. “I am sure all actors feel that way--we are acutely aware of what the craft entailed when you could not talk,” he explains.

“I must say that it is a shock to see really good work from the actors in these silent films because it is not what we are programmed to expect. What we have seen mostly has been actors pretending to parody silent films where they overact.”

“Modern Times,” which was released in 1936 almost a decade after the introduction of the talkies, is a rich, funny and moving satire on the Machine Age. Paulette Goddard stars as a young waif with whom Chaplin’s Little Tramp falls in love. Chaplin also wrote the exquisite score for the comedy, which includes the enduring “Smile.”

When “Modern Times” was first shown, it featured a soundtrack that included not only Chaplin’s score but sound effects, a few lines of dialogue and Chaplin performing a comic song in Italian. The Chaplin family never thought it was feasible to show “Modern Times” with a live orchestra because of the sound effects.

“It was complicated,” says Chaplin’s daughter, Josephine, an actress who made her film debut as a toddler in her father’s film “Limelight.”

But Hanna M. Kennedy, the Chamber Orchestra board member who pioneered the Silent Film Gala, thought it could be done and approached the Chaplins about orchestrating “Modern Times.”

The restoration of the score took nearly 14 months. “The sheet music Timothy Brock had wasn’t exactly the same as what was in the film,” says Chaplin. “I think, when they recorded it with the film, my father would change things at the last minute.”

“I worked on it six days a week, usually night and day,” says Brock. “There was a lot of work to do. I could restore 15 to 20 seconds of music on an average eight- to 10-hour day.”

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Although the score for “Modern Times” was better documented than Chaplin’s score for his 1931 film “City Lights,” there was at least eight minutes that lacked any notation.

“In some instances they wrote figures down on little bits of paper that weren’t saved,” Brock says. “So I had to take dictation from the actual 1935 [recording] masters. I sat and listened to what the 65-piece orchestra was playing and wrote it down.

“The original orchestration is by [composer] David Raksin [‘Laura’], which is absolutely brilliant and so colorful and has so many layers to restore [his orchestration to its original color].”

Chace Productions of Burbank restored the film’s soundtrack, which contains all the sound effects and dialogue. Chace technicians, who also restored the soundtracks of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind,” spent nearly 200 hours sprucing up the original track and re-creating the sound effects. Chaplin’s performance of the song “Titina,” though, was left untouched.

“I felt, and everyone agreed, that should be left alone,” says Brock. “There is nothing [in it] that needs restoration or reconstruction.”

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“Modern Times” has been Brock’s favorite Chaplin score since he first saw the film as a youngster. “It is the strongest compositionally,” he says. “The music is so woven into the film’s imagery--into the fabric of the film’s imagery. Obviously, he took a lot of care on how the music sounded.”

“I love all of his music,” says Josephine Chaplin, who quotes from her father’s autobiography that his aim was to compose “elegant and romantic music to frame” his comedies.

“Musical arrangers rarely understand this,” wrote Charlie Chaplin. “They wanted the music to be funny and I would explain I would want no competition. I want the music to be a counterpoint of grace and charm to express sentiment.”

“That’s what makes Chaplin a very gifted composer because he was able to know what music does,” adds Brock. “Charlie wasn’t able to notate his music--that is where people like David [Raksin] came in. He was able to think it out in his mind. Apparently, David and Charlie would go to Musso & Frank and Charlie would hum out tunes while they were having lunch.

“And David would write them down. Charlie knew exactly where he wanted the music in the movie. He was very specific. He employed the orchestra for six weeks full time and fed them! He respected musicians tremendously.”

After “Modern Times” plays at Royce Hall, Brock will be conducting screenings of the film for the next two years all around the world.

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“Modern Times” will be shown Saturday at 8 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce Hall. General admission is $25; $60 for priority seating; and $225 for the film and post-film supper. For information call (213) 622-7001, Ext. 275.