What David Thomson said

American cinema liked to glorify “simple” people. It was a way of reassuring everyone that a picture was for them. Think of Chaplin’s little man and then notice his huge ego. This is a keystone in the American lie, that our lives can be small. Vigo believed that every life is just a pale skin wrapped around a seething inner life, and he knew that film could uncover it.
— The Big Screen, David Thomson