Blind Gestures: Chaplin, Diderot, Lessing

Charlie Chaplin's "tramp," whose trademark muteness persisted well into the ear of sound, embodied trademark muteness persisted well into the era of sound, embodies an irreducible humanity consistent with the utopian potential that silent cinema held for many practitioners. Chaplin's "City Lights," made after the advent of audio synchronization, used sound largely to ridicule sound.