CELLULOID MYSTERY

Did A Time Traveler Visit The Set Of Charlie Chaplin's Circus?

Staff

Poster for <i>The Circus</i> DOES THIS VIDEO CAPTURE A REAL TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE?

Belfast filmmaker George Clark swears the portly woman walking in this shot of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film The Circus is talking on a cell phone. After studying the film for a year, he's convinced the butchy woman is a time traveler from another era.

Clark has posted a clip on YouTube seeking to generate a worldwide debate on just what he's found on screen.

It couldn't possibly be promotion for his "award-winning" Ballad of the Bone, whose poster is conveniently situated behind him in the video?

Perhaps the name of his production company Yellow Fever has gone to his head? Or, more likely, the lady visage is a digital hoax?

I would love to believe the lady's a time traveler, but I'm not buying it. Clark, on the other hand, isn't so sure.

"Technically there's nothing can explain that can be what is in her hand,'' he says on his YouTube video. "If you look carefully...it's clear that she's talking, she's on her own, she's talking into the device. And even when she stops and she turns around, she kinds of looks in the camera. That's the weirdest part for me....there's no wires, there's no long antenna coming out. ...It's just unexplainable, I'm completely stumped."

Comments

Was she communicating with her spaceship in orbit? Or is she maybe an observer from another time and an avid Chaplin fan, I mean, just check out her shoes. Or maybe was she listening to a chime on her clock or music box and talking to herself or sing along… as people sometimes do! Seriously, I watched that clip over and over and I could not see what was in her hand. What is MOST surprising to me though was that she did not stop to gawk at the Zebra! I mean, that’s not something you see every day.

Posted by: Jo | November 2, 2010 09:04 PM

Who is she talking to?
How on Earth can a mobile phone operate in 1928?

Posted by: Nick | November 1, 2010 06:39 AM