The best answer above may be a literal translation from Chinese.
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot. ?
-- Charlie Chaplin
close-up (close-up Shot, close-up) and long-shot (far shot) are all cinematic vocabulary. Maybe it was a life principle that Chaplin realized one day while making a movie.
Note that Chaplin’s original sentence used comedy (comedy), not drama (drama).