Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin: Little Men, Big Auteurs

The comic archetype of the Little Man—a "nobody" who stands up to unfairness—is central to the films of Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin. Portraying the alienation of life in an indifferent world with a mix of pathos, irony and slapstick, both adopted absurdist personas—Chaplin's bumbling yet clever Tramp with his shabby clothes, and Allen's fool with his metaphysical witticisms and proclivity to fall in love too quickly.

Both men were auteurs who managed to retain creative control of their ...