Criterion to release City Lights

02 Sep 2013

Criterion is releasing Chaplin’s City Lights on DVD/Blu-ray on November 12, 2013.

Pre-order yours today!

Disc Features

-New digital restoration from a 4K film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

-New audio commentary by Charlie Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance

-Chaplin Today: “City Lights,” a 2003 documentary on the film, featuring Aardman Animations cofounder Peter Lord

-Chaplin Studios: Creative Freedom by Design, a new interview program featuring visual effects expert Craig Barron

-Archival footage from the production of City Lights, including film from the set, with audio commentary by Chaplin historian Hooman Mehran; a costume test; a rehearsal; and a complete scene not used in the film

-Excerpt from Chaplin’s short film The Champion (1915), along with footage of the director with boxing stars at Chaplin Studios in 1918

-Trailers

-One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats

-PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Gary Giddins and a 1966 interview with Chaplin

Pre-order today!

The Kid - Coram Secret Garden

08 Aug 2013

“A picture with a smile – and perhaps, a tear” - The Nomad Cinema presents an open air screening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 masterpiece The Kid in a magical environment in central London.

Place: Coram Secret Garden, London
Date: Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
Time: Doors open at 7.00PM, screening at 8.30PM

Don’t forget blankets, cushions and lots of layers and make sure you’re sitting comfortably as the sun goes down and the screen goes up.

Please visit the Nomad Cinema’s website for full details.

The Hat, The Cane, The Moustache

31 Jul 2013

August 1-26, 2013 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: The Hat, The Cane, The Moustache is a solo show in which a young actor explores the life and career of his idol, Charlie Chaplin.

Clive Elkington stars in this unique and playful look at one of the world’s most famous film stars.

Explore the life and career of Charlie Chaplin through the eyes of a young actor in the moments before he goes on stage to recreate his idol. This one man show is a funny and extraordinary story of two performers, told in words, visual and physical theatre - all with a great big toothy grin, and the inspiration of a legend to draw on… With a hat, a cane and a moustache, Chaplin’s Little Tramp will come back to life right before your eyes.

For more information, see the Edinburgh Festival Fringe website. You can also check out the show’s Facebook page - Or if you tweet, follow @ChaplinEdFringe

Photos: Chaplin and Animals

25 Jun 2013

For your viewing pleasure, here is another selection of photographs from the Chaplin archives. Our theme for this selection is “Chaplin and Animals”. Enjoy!

On the set of A Dog’s Life (1918) © Roy Export Company Establishment. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

Merna Kennedy and Chaplin play with a kitten. The Circus (1928) © Roy Export S.A.S. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

Charlie Chaplin in One A.M. (1916) From the archives of Roy Export Company Establishment.

Charlie tries blowing a pill down a horse’s throat in The Circus (1928) © Roy Export S.A.S. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

Charlie as a tight-rope walker, attacked by escaped monkeys in The Circus (1928) © Roy Export S.A.S. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

Chaplin as a street cleaner with Anna May, famed elephant star, in City Lights (1931) © Roy Export S.A.S. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

On the set of The Circus (1928). For the scenes with the lions Chaplin made some 200 takes, in many of which he was actually inside the lion’s cage. © Roy Export Company Establishment. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

Charles Chaplin feeds a bear on the set of The Gold Rush (1925). © Roy Export Company Establishment. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

A cat steals a sausage from the table in Pay Day (1922) © Roy Export S.A.S. Scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna.

You can also check out our previous photo archive posts:
February 28th, 2013: A selection of Chaplin photographs
March 29th, 2013: From the Chaplin archives

Charlie Chaplin Days

31 May 2013

June 1st & 2nd, 2013 - Don’t miss the Charlie Chaplin Days at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, CA!

Enjoy special film screenings, contests and other fun events! For further details, visit the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum website.

Time with Chaplin

30 Apr 2013

If you’d like to spend more time with Charlie Chaplin checkout the blog whose mission is to :

bring something new and interesting to the incredible lore and history of Chaplin - his life, his times, his films. Much of it will be pulled from old magazine and newspaper articles and out-of-print books.

We can only adhere to that :-)

Material for Educational Purpose

25 Apr 2013

Charlie Chaplin is a great teaching tool! You can download some educational material by clicking here. The resources in this file are for educational purposes only. They may not be used commercially. Please be creative with them! Kids can use the images of Chaplin to create their own Chaplin movie posters, for example. They can also create their own flip-books using material from the original press book of the 1940 release of The Great Dictator, or make cutout paper dolls from the 1936 Modern Times press book.

If you have any questions or if you’d simply like to share any of your classroom’s Chaplin creations with us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch:

Roy Export SAS
58 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau
75001 Paris, France
Tel: 33 (1) 40 26 31 23
e-mail: office[AT]charliechaplin[DOT]com

Screening Chaplin films in schools

The Chaplin films owned by Roy Export, all those made by Chaplin from 1918 onwards (except A Countess from Hong Kong), may only be accompanied by Chaplin’s full symphonic score, either played live by an orchestra or on the film’s actual soundtrack. For the rights to screen one of these films in your school, please contact:

DIAPAHANA for France.
Léna Force : LenaFORCE[AT]diaphana[DOT]fr

CURZON for the UK.
info[AT]curzon[DOT]com

CRITERION/JANUS FILMS for the USA.
Brian Belovarac - belovarac[AT]janusfilms[DOT]com

Or contact us at office[AT]charliechaplin[DOT]com for your country, if not listed above.

The films made by Chaplin before 1918 for Keystone, Essanay and Mutual are in public domain, so there is no copyright for the films themselves. However, different people or companies may have copyright in and to any image restoration they have carried out on the films, or in and to the music put on a particular video or DVD to accompany the films. Therefore, you cannot just screen from a DVD that you buy in a shop because it may contain such copyright material.

David Shepard, of Film Preservation Associates in California, has the best quality restorations of Chaplin’s 1915 - 1917 films that we know of. His email address is DShepFilm[AT]aol[DOT]com. His associate in Europe, Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films, serge[AT]lobsterfilms[DOT]com would also be able to license the footage to you.

Lobster is also in charge of clips from the Keystone (1914) restoration project by the BFI, Cineteca di Bologna, and Lobster. Chaplin did not compose music for the films he made before 1918. These can be accompanied by piano, organ or any other instruments playing the music of your choice.

Online Resources

Our official website is full of articles, news, book and DVD information.

If you need images from Chaplin films, please visit our image bank.

Please visit our Facebook page for our latest news.

You can also check out our Youtube channel for clips from films and other videos.

The Cineteca di Bologna has scanned all the Chaplin archives - documents and photographs from the Chaplin Studios and the films.

You can also read about “Ciné-Pousse” Filmmaking Workshops for Kids, which Roy Export and the Chaplin family are happy to sponsor.

Charlie Chaplin
Written by Kieran, Year 5
St Peter’s C of E primary School
Walworth London

Charlie Chaplin was a star
And also a great director
He always wobbles
And blows bubbles
He was a famous actor
Charlie Chaplin’s best film was “The Kid”
He was a tramp
He was very funny
And got a lot of money
Charlie wore a hat
He had baggy trousers
His moustache looked like a grizzly bear
I am a massive fan
He was always hit with a frying pan
The comedian went on stage at five
He was more than alive
Died with style on a beautiful day
On Christmas Day