“When you say that... Smile”

Pathos and comedy in the works of Keaton and Chaplin

Authors

  • Gabriele Gimmelli University of Bergamo

Keywords:

Slapstick comedy, pathos, pantomime, melodrama, parody

Abstract

Throughout its history, slapstick comedy has often combined laughter with thrills. The two names we are focusing on in this essay, Chaplin and Keaton, provide us with examples that are to some extent opposite and complementary. Chaplin aims for a pathos characterized by a strong emotional closeness, often incorporating situations from nineteenth-century melodrama; on the other hand, Keaton seeks a less direct pathos, sometimes playing on the disproportion between man and his surroundings, sometimes on situations of danger and terror.

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Author Biography

Gabriele Gimmelli, University of Bergamo

Gabriele Gimmelli is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Letters, Philosophy, Communication of the University of Bergamo. A member of the editorial staff of doppiozero, he contributes to a range of cultural and critical magazines, including Film TV, Blow Up, Il Tascabile, and Lucy. He has published numerous essays in scholarly journals and edited volumes. His most recent books include Un cineasta delle riserve. Gianni Celati e il cinema (Quodlibet, 2021) and “American”. Orson Welles, il mito, la letteratura (Quodlibet, 2024). He has also edited Tutte le opere di Aldo Buzzi (La nave di Teseo, 2020) and, together with Marco Belpoliti and Gianluigi Ricuperati, the volume Saul Steinberg (Quodlibet Riga, 2021).

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Published

2025-12-15

How to Cite

Gimmelli, G. (2025). “When you say that. Smile”: Pathos and comedy in the works of Keaton and Chaplin. SigMa - Rivista Di Letterature Comparate, Teatro E Arti Dello Spettacolo, (9), 49–66. Retrieved from https://serena.sharepress.it/index.php/sigma/article/view/13019

Issue

No. 9 (2025): The emotions of silence from silent films to sound films ‘sans paroles’

Section

Sezione monografica

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

SigMa Journal is an open access, online publication, with licence:

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