The Fantasy Home

The fantasy that Chaplin wants is one that exists by way of ignoring reality. The couple is able to have their normative fantasy because they are able to ignore the two victims of depression who are out on their front lawn. This is indeed a capacity for concealment in the face of poverty that Chaplin is using the revealing function of cinema here to fight. Indeed, the only time in which the two find a home in the film is a squatter town, which is an allusion to the social phenomenon that was very easy to see during the Depression.

Video 2.29: Fantasy home sequence from Modern Times.