The ethics of estrangement in Shklovsky and Chaplin

This article explores the interplay between Russian formalist aesthetic theory and the practice of American slapstick film. It proposes that Chaplin’s early silent comedies both illustrate and influenced Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of art as a means of estranging the world. In conclusion, it integrates a little-known late modernist film by Saul Levine, a radical underground filmmaker. This film, “The Big Stick/An Old Reel,” reworks two Chaplin shorts as a countercultural intervention in the current political situation.