Animated text video from the film “The Great Dictator”

05/24
multimedia

Article by: PROJECTS

Video prepared by Silva Nuno and André Coelho with the aim of exploring the tools of the Adobe After Effects program. This work was prepared as part of a university project for the Design course at IADE, European University, Lisbon. To enhance this research and learning work, the inspiring words of actor Charlie Chaplin from the film “The Great Dictator” were chosen, a North American production in 1940. This message, strong in its meaning and in the performance of voice expression, is also an always updated criticism of humanity's persistent attitudes. It is in this way that this creative video, an audiovisual text animation, becomes important in disseminating the context that enhances human principles and values.

Charlie Chaplin composes an ironic portrait of European Nazi-fascism in two of its main figures: Hitler and Mussolini. The reproduced scene presents three characteristics of Nazi ideology: militarism, irrationalism and expansionism. Militarism and expansionism are two characteristics of Nazi-fascism, evident in the scene from “The Great Dictator”, suggested by the leader's uniform and his dominance of the globe. Irrationalism, on the other hand, can only be perceived indirectly, whether in the dictator's “affectionate” look at the planet, thus transformed into an object of his subjective desire, or in the comical ensemble of the entire scene.