Sightlines · a viewing thread

The Great Silent Clowns

The masters of physical comedy back to back — watch these to feel the unbroken line from Chaplin's Tramp and Keaton's stone face to Tati's tiptoeing Monsieur Hulot.

Film-history bedrock that still plays as sheer pleasure and asks almost nothing of a viewer; City Lights, Modern Times and The General are essential and instantly accessible, while The Circus, The Kid and Mon Oncle are the connoisseur's deeper cuts.

• City Lights (1931)
• Modern Times (1936)
• The General (1926)
• The Circus (1928)
• The Kid (1921)
• Mon Oncle (1958)
• The Artist (2011) — The overlooked modern one that rhymes with these — a silent film about silent film, all pantomime and marquee grins, made to prove the Tramp's grammar still plays; if City Lights landed, this is the one to finally pull down.
• Limelight (1952) — The under-seen Chaplin you forgot, his own aching reckoning with the clown's craft — an aging music-hall comic passing the torch, complete with the once-in-a-lifetime routine alongside Keaton himself, the missing link between these masters.