New Book: Charlie Chaplin Archive - wow wow wow

The other day, I received my copy (#105) of The Charlie Chaplin Archives. My first response was "Wow." I knew this book was big, but I hadn't not realized how BIG! "Wow." The book is nearly 18 inches wide and 3 inches thick. It weighs more than 15 pounds, and comes in its own box with carry handle. "Wow." I'm impressed, and think this is the book of the year for film buffs!

"The most un-put-downable movie book of the season is also the most un-pick-uppable one… It’s an apt tribute to the filmmaker, whose artistry transcends the cinema and spans world-historical dimensions… a revelation of Chaplin’s creative process, even to the furious core of energy, passion, lust, and sheer will that fueled it…" — TheNewYorker.com

According to the publisher, "With unrestricted access to the Chaplin archives, TASCHEN presents the ultimate book on the making of every one of his films. With 900 images, including stills, memos, storyboards and on-set photos, as well as interviews with Chaplin and his closest collaborators, it reveals the process behind the Chaplin genius, from the impromptu invention of early shots to the meticulous retakes and reworking of scenes and gags in his classic movies: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and the provocative Hitler parody The Great Dictator (1940)."

Oh, and yes, Louise Brooks is mentioned in The Charlie Chaplin Archive. On page 279, editor Paul Duncan notes "The Gold Rush went on to gross over $4 million worldwide. Chaplin remained in New York for two months after the premiere. During this time he had an affair with Louise Brooks, a showgirl who would later have success as a movie actress."

The book includes:

• The Chaplin life history in words and pictures
• 900 images including many previously unseen stills, on-set photos, memos, documents, storyboards, posters, and designs, plus scripts and images for unmade films
• An oral history, told from the point of view of Chaplin himself, drawing upon his extensive writings, many of which have never been reprinted before.
• Supplementary interviews with some of his closest collaborators.
• Material from over 150 books of press clippings in Chaplin's archives, which range from his early days in music halls to his death
• Chaplin's short films, from Making a Living (1914) to The Pilgrim (1923), as well as all of his feature-length movies, from The Kid (1921) to A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
• The first print run of 10,000 copies includes a precious 12 frame strip from City Lights (1931), cut from a 35 mm print in Chaplin’s archives.

Happy birthday Charlie Chaplin, from the Louise Brooks Society

Happy birthday to Charlie Chaplin, from the Louise Brooks Society. In this excerpt from the 1986 BBC Arena documentary on Louise Brooks, the actress looks back on her summer long affair with the famed actor.

Listen to Louise Brooks on Arena describe her two months summer romance with Chaplin, during one of his visits to New York for the premiere of 'The Gold Rush' in 1925.

From: Louise Brooks (1986). Directors: Charles Chabot and Richard Leacock. Series editor: Anthony Wall. Narration by Linda Hunt.

Happy birthday Charlie Chaplin! (16th of April 1889)Listen to Louise Brooks on Arena describe her two months summer romance with Chaplin, during one of his visits to New York for the premiere of 'The Gold Rush' in 1925.From: Louise Brooks (1986). Directors: Charles Chabot and Richard Leacock. Series editor: Anthony Wall.#arenaoftheday
Posted by BBC Arena on Thursday, April 16, 2015

Posing Regretted by Louise Brooks, Erstwhile "Friend" of Charlie Chaplin

As promised, here is one of the rarest bits of Brooksiana and Chapliniana you are likely to see . . . . the four panel comic strip "history" of the summer long affair between the then little known showgirl Louise Brooks and international film star Charlie Chaplin. Tongues were wagging in 1925.

Gossip made the news. The related feature photo below was syndicated across the country. I have found many instances of this captioned image in newspapers from across the United States.

Charlie Chaplin: Birth of the Tramp celebration & conference in Italy

Charlie Chaplin: Birth of the Tramp celebration & conference June 26th-28th, 2014
at the Cineteca di Bologna in Italy

The conference will cover a large breadth of topics: presentations will deal with Chaplinitis, fakes and imitators and the Tramp’s reception and influence in Czechoslovakia, India, Japan and China, to name but some. There will also be papers on The Tramp in Art and Philosophy, and animation, on Chaplin the Filmmaker, and Chaplin & Music. Keynote speaker Lisa Haven will tackle Chaplin's influence on members of the American Counterculture movement.

Download the complete programme

A Conversation with Mike Leigh, Michel Hazanavicius, Claire Bloom
A conversation with Michael Chaplin about his father’s origins
David Robinson on the Centenary of the Tramp and Chaplin’s Limelight/Footlights
Kevin Brownlow illustrated lecture on Chaplin and the First World War 
   
Birth of the Tramp
Frank Scheide, “Finding his Screen Persona in Making a Living and Kid’s Auto Races: Charlie Chaplin’s Transition from English Music Hall Comedy to American Film Slapstick”
Hooman Mehran, “Lingering Mysteries from 1914”
Bill Finney, “Kid Auto Races, The Tramp’s Debut”

The Tramp in Historical Context

Norbert Aping, “Chaplin and the Nazis, 1926-44”
Ayse Bechet, “The Little Tramp and the Big War: The Harmsworth Affair”
Richard Carr, “Chaplin and the British Political Elite: Depicting Poverty to the Great and the Good, 1889-1932”
Harvey Cohen, Charlie Chaplin’s America”

Chaplin, the Filmmaker

Francis Bordat "How far is Chaplin the filmmaker at work in his early films (1914-1917)?"
Chuck Maland "’A Neurotic State of Wanting Perfection’: Chaplin, Studio Records, and the Making of City Lights"
John Bengtson, "Chaplin’s Silent Footsteps: a visual tour of the Tramp’s historic film locations"
David Totheroh on his grandfather, Rollie Totheroh

Pertaining to the Tramp

Christian Hayes, Chaplinitis: "The Chaplin Boom in Britain, 1914-1915"
Adolphe Nysenholc 1914 : "Birth of a world”; Glenn Mitchell, “The Tramp’s True Farewell"
Libby Murphy, "The Tramp and the Tuxedo: How Charlie Triumphs over Chaplin"

Tramp Fakes & Imitators

Carlos Paz Molina, “Chaplin Speaks!: Chaplin Fake Sound Films in Spain”
Scott Paulin, "’ I’ll give you a movie right here’: Impersonating Charlie Chaplin on the Musical Stage in 1915"
Uli Ruedel, "One Little Tramp, Two Great Clowns: The Chaplin ‘Parody’ of Charlie Rivel"

The Tramp Around the World

Milan Hain, “Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp and Czechoslovakia” ; Ono Hiroyuki, “The Tramp in Japan”; Kathryn Millard, "Chaplin Imitators Around the Globe:  A Historical Perspective”; Geraldine Rodrigues, The Reception of early Chaplin films in France; Zhiwei Xiao, “The Enduring Legacy of Charlie Chaplin: The View from the East, 1919-2013”;

The Tramp in Art and Philosophy

Lisa Haven, "City Lights Magazine, the American Counterculture and Chaplin’s Little Tramp, 1952-77"
Charly Sistovaris "The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights – a trilogy of illusions"
Noah Teichner, "Charlie Chaplin, a Surrealist Icon?"

Chaplin & Music

Jim Lochner, "The Tramp in Transition: The Musical Movements of City Lights"
Round table discussion on Chaplin’s music with musician who accompany and compose for Chaplin films: Antonio Coppola, Donald Sosin, Timothy Brock, Maud Nelissen, Gabriel Thibaudeau

The Chaplin Archives

Cecilia Cenciarelli & Kate Guyonvarch,"Treasures of the Chaplin Archives"
Ellen Cheshire, "Charlie Chaplin on How to Make a Living"
Paul Duncan, "Chaplin without Chaplin: The Making of A Woman of Paris"

The Tramp’s Influence

Yuri Tsivian will discuss Chaplin and Russia
Nancy Beiman, "The Animated Tramp: Charlie Chaplin’s Influence on American Animation"
Ranjamkittka Bhowmik, "The Eternal Tramp: Chaplin’s Imitation and Resonance in Raj Kapoor’s Cinema"
Stephane Goudet, "Chaplin and Jacques Tati"


and much more.

IN HONOR OF THIS SPECIAL EVENT, TOMORROW'S LOUISE BROOKS SOCIETY BLOG WILL FEATURE A RARE BIT OF CHAPLINIANA (RELATED TO
LOUISE BROOKS) THAT FEW IF ANY HAVE EVER SEEN!

A cubist drawing of Charlie Chaplin

Just because it is: A cubist drawing of Charlie Chaplin from the book Bonjour, Cinéma (1921), by Jean Epstein.

Epstein was a French filmmaker, film theorist, literary critic, and novelist. Although he is remembered today primarily for his adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Epstein directed three dozen films and was an influential critic of literature and film from the early 1920s through the late 1940s. He is often associated with French Impressionist Cinema. In July 2012, a book of Epstein's critical essays was published in English translation.

Charlie Chaplin Centennial Celebration

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival Presents

THE LITTLE TRAMP AT 100
A Charlie Chaplin Centennial Celebration

January 11, 2014 at the Castro Theater

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is pleased to present a day of Charlie Chaplin films on Saturday, January 11th at the historic Castro Theater in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s most renowned character, The Little Tramp. For more information visit http://www.silentfilm.org/special-events/the-little-tramp-at-100.

The program for the day includes:

Our Mutual Friend: Three Chaplin Shorts at 1PM
Charlie Chaplain made some of his greatest comedies at the Mutual Film Corporation. Chaplin acknowledged his time at Mutual as the most inventive and liberating period of his career. Approximately 90 minutes total. The shorts program includes:

• The Vagabond (1916, with Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell). Charlie Chaplin plays is a musician who rescues a girl from a band of gypsies.
• The Cure (1917, with Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman). An inebriated Charlie Chaplin checks into a sanitarium to take the cure, but brings a cabinet of liquor with him.
• Easy Street (1917, with Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell). Blending comedy and social commentary Charlie Chaplin’s character goes from tramp to police constable. Accompanied by Jon Mirsalis on piano.   

THE KID at 4PM
Chaplin’s Little Tramp character becomes a surrogate father to an abandoned child in this eloquent marriage of comedy and sentiment. One of his most personal films, Chaplin himself was placed in a home for destitute children at age seven, THE KID is considered by many to be his most perfect. Additionally, celebrate the centennial of with Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), the first appearance of Chaplin’s Tramp character. Approximately 70 minutes total. Accompanied by San Francisco Chamber Orchestra with Timothy Brock conducting Chaplin’s score.

Preceding THE KID, there will be Charlie Chaplin Look-Alike contest. Come dressed as the Little Tramp and win a prize!

THE GOLD RUSH at 7:30PM
Charlie Chaplin, inspired by images of the 1896 Klondike gold rush and the Donner Party disaster of 1846 (in which snowbound immigrants resorted to eating their shoes—and their dead companions—to survive), manages to turn a story of cold, hunger, and loneliness into a sublime comedy. The Little Tramp becomes a prospector who sets out for the Klondike to strike it rich, battling starvation, bears, and other prospectors along the way. THE GOLD RUSH contains some of the most iconic images in cinema, including the famous scene in which Charlie makes a gourmet feast of his boot! Georgia Hale plays the beautiful dance hall entertainer who steals Charlie’s heart. Approximately 80 minutes. Accompanied by San Francisco Chamber Orchestra with Timothy Brock conducting Chaplin’s score.

Tickets Information, Date and Public Contact Numbers
The San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation of Charlie Chaplain at 100 takes place Saturday, January 11 at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Tickets and passes are now on sale and are $15 for General, $13 for Members and $10 for Children for the Shorts Program and $22 for General, $20 for Members and $10 for Children for THE KID and THE GOLD RUSH. For complete ticket information, please visit the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at www.silentfilm.org, or call 415-777-4908 ext. 1 for group sales.

For more information, visit the SFSFF website at www.silentfilm.org.

Chaplin's Gold Rush to screen in San Francisco Bay Area

Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) is considered not only one of Chaplin's best films and one the great films of all time - but it also plays an important, even pivotal role in the life story of Louise Brooks.

Legendary in the annals of film history, The Gold Rush is the film in which Chaplin as the Little Tramp eats his boot and, at a would-be New Year's Eve dinner gathering, poignantly performs the "Dance of the Rolls." In 1998, the American Film Institute chose The Gold Rush as one of the 100 greatest films ever made.

A newly restored 35 mm print of The Gold Rush screens for seven days beginning December 23 at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, California.

Seldom satisfied with his work, Chaplin added original music to the film in 1942, while also trimming several minutes and bridging the gaps with narration. Now, for the first time, the complete 1925 version - without narration - has been painstakingly restored. With the permission of the Chaplin estate, composer Timothy Brock has arranged Chaplin's 1942 orchestral score to accommodate the length of the original version. The film now runs 90 minutes, as it did at its New York City premiere at the Strand Theater.

That premiere, in the Summer of 1925, drew the famous comedic actor and director to New York. And it was there, at a cocktail party hosted by producer Walter Wanger, that Chaplin first met Louise Brooks - then a Ziegfeld Follies dancer performing at the New Amsterdam Theater. The two hit it off - and spent pretty much the entire season in one another's company. Chaplin (though married at the time) and Brooks even lived together for a time.

Chaplin and Brooks, who were often see together in public, were the subject of gossip as well as reports in some of New York City's numerous newspapers. The two also attended various plays and shows including Outside Looking In, the stage adaption of Jim Tully's book Beggars of Life. Brooks would later star in the film adaption of Tully's bestseller, as well as in later life recount the time spent with Chaplin in the Summer of 1925.

Today, The Gold Rush is regarded as one of Chaplin's best films. Though his opinion of his own work changed over the years, to the end of his life Chaplin often declared that of all his films this was the one by which he would most wish to be remembered. For those in the Bay Area, it is a great opportunity to see a great film.

More info: The Gold Rush plays at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center (1118 Fourth Street) December 23 through December 29, 2011. A list of dates and show times for The Gold Rush at the Rafael Film Center can be found at http://www.cafilm.org/rfc/films/1644.html

Louise Brooks via a new Chaplin biography

There is a new book on Charlie Chaplin called Chaplin: A Life (Arcade). The book is by Stephen Weissman, M.D. What sets it apart from the many other Chaplin books is that this new work is a psychoanalytical study of the Little Tramp. And as with all new books on silent film subjects, the first thing I check is whether or not Louise Brooks is included. I think of it as a "Lulu-litmus test."



Chaplin: A Life passed the test. Some two or three paragraphs are given over to the Summer long affair Chaplin and Brooks had in 1925. And of course, Weissman recounts the iodine penis painting incident, something also detailed in the Barry Paris biography. [ The incident, and mention of Louise Brooks, are also referenced on an archived radio interview with Weissman on the Diane Rehm show, which can be heard atwamu.org/programs/dr/09/01/12.php#24475. That show originally aired on January 12, 2009. ]

Well, anyways, its a book worth checking out. I wrote a piece about it and the author's upcoming appearance in San Francisco for examiner.com. My article can be found at www.examiner.com/x-7605-SF-Silent-Film-Examiner~y2009m5d8-Chaplin-biographer-to-speak-in-San-Francisco  Please give it a read as well. 

Anti-Chaplin cartoon

And here's yet another interesting item I ran across at the library last week, and anti-Chaplin cartoon from 1927.

Charlie Chaplin biography

Finally finished reading Chaplin, the 1985 biography by the British film historian David Robinson. (This book served as the basis for the biopic of Charlie Chaplin.) What a large life! The author - who I had the pleasure to meet and chat with a number of years ago - did a tremendous job. There is a ton of information here, with emphasis given to the films rather than the personal life of the "little tramp." Nevertheless, its a good read.