“Aut Caesar aut nullus, Emperor of the world!”

I’ve only recently grown to appreciate the silent-screen and 1940’s The Great Dictator was the film that hooked me. TBB fixture Stefan Schindler (Brainbikerider) shares a similar affection for the movie and has brought his considerable building skill to the task of recreating its most often cited sequence. According to StefanEver since I saw the first pictures of the little Lego globe, I dreamed of building the iconic scene of Charlie Chaplin’s ballet with the globe in “The Great Dictator”, which is one of my most favourite movies.” This isn’t the first time TBB has featured a diorama from The Great Dictator, back in 2008 we introduced readers to a model by Piglet that effectively tackled another scene entirely.

The Great Dictator

9 comments on ““Aut Caesar aut nullus, Emperor of the world!”

  1. jindianajonz

    Unfortunately, the Great Dictator wasn’t silent- how could you forget Chaplin’s spoken plea against fascism at the end?

  2. Andrew

    Why is that unfortunate? It was beautiful! (And it’s what I highlighted in the post Keith linked to, so I’m sure he’s aware…)

  3. jindianajonz

    Ah, fair enough, but he began the post saying this is what hooked him on silent films.

    If you want some great silent films, I don’t think anything can beat the power of “The Passion of Joan of Arc”, and Paul Fejo’s “Lonesome” was recently given a beautiful restoration by the Criterion Collection.

  4. Keith Goldman Post author

    That sentence didn’t come out the way I had intended, of course the film is a ‘talkie’, I meant to say that it paved the way for my enjoyment of Charlie Chapman and in turn, silent films.

    It is kind of irritating, however, that people are rarely compelled to comment on the model, which is usually worthy of some few words at least out of courtesy, but they can’t wait to point out some inaccuracy in the text. Maybe I’m alone in this line of thinking, or it is antiquated in some way. You are right in any case, that sentence didn’t make much sense.

  5. jindianajonz

    Well, for my own part, I shared it with 3 friends, and one of them was the one who made the comment. I figured sharing was the best comment I could make, and either way, the beauty of the model speaks for itself more than I ever could :)

  6. LukeClarenceVan

    Keith, to be fair, most people follow the link and give the builder direct praise rather than hoping they’ll see the compliment here.
    However, since I’m currently inactive on Flickr, I’ll say congratulations to Stefan Schindler here for a spectacular scene.

  7. Andrew

    I’m with Keith — you guys need to remember that we do pay attention to what you all say after you’ve clicked through on Flickr, but the feedback we get here is almost invariably negative. And that’s both annoying, and frankly, more than a little rude. It would be nice to occasionally see something that’s actually relevant to the model and positive about the context and critique we’ve made of the model in our own write-up. We have nearly 200,000 readers, but it sometimes feels like a freakin’ echo chamber in here…

  8. LukeClarenceVan

    Andrew, Keith, I wasn’t trying to argue against giving positive feedback here, merely mentioning that it’s (unfortunately) not in the nature of the readers. I’m a contributor to a LEGO blog as well, and it’s always fantastic to see someone leave a comment – especially a good one. Sadly, people take quality writing for granted and only comment on small nitpicks. While this seems rude, I take it as a compliment. ;)
    That said, it’s always nice to get a positive response from readers, and for my part I’ve been trying to increase my activity around here… Hopefully without entering too many arguments. ;)

  9. Keith Goldman Post author

    Luke, you’ve always been great with the comments, I wish more of our constant readers would follow your example. I should probably adopt your outlook on the topic or else continue shouting at kids from my porch.

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