Part I. Chaplin in context

Chaplin at Keystone, Griffith at Biograph

The slapstick exemption

Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and the classical style

Part II. The silent era

Chaplin's filmmaking technique

Chaplin's filmmaking philosophy

A masterpiece of mediation: City lights

Part III. The sound era

Dangerous voices: modern times and the great dictator

Substituting speech for style: Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, and A king in New York

Return to form: A countess from Hong Kong

Epilogue: the Chaplin century.