He would have been 130 today. The genius artist Charles Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889.
Little Charlie's life started in London in deep poverty, with an absent father and a mother struggling to make ends meet and facing serious psychological problems - she ended up in a mental asylum when Charlie was only 14.
Fascinated by the scene, Chaplin went on to sign with a company called Fred Karno, which took him to America, where he discovered the very beginnings of cinema. Starring in some short films, he created the tramp character, which became so wildly popular around the world that he soon started to become the lead character.
Like all geniuses, Chaplin wanted full control and managed every creative facet of the process, which was unknown at the time. In order to completely free himself from studios, he even went on and co-founded in 1919 the film studio United Artists, which still exists today and gave him full control over his films.
Just two years after, the most magnificent part of this career started, with the release of his very first feature-film, The Kid, the story of the tramp taking care of a young poor kid. This was only 1921 and the film still resonates today. Just try watching the end of the film without getting emotional - an impossible challenge on its own.
In 1923, he released A Woman in Paris, a film that is mostly unknown, as it does not feature the tramp character, but contains sublime inventions throughout the film, such as a character waiting at a railway station and seeing the light from the train moving past the character. If you haven't watched it, give it a chance and you will appreciate the journey. And if you look closely, you'll even be able to see very briefly Chaplin in one scene.
After that, the gold era of Chaplin started, with The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936). All classic and cult films, still today.
Unfortunately, life became once again very difficult for Charles Chaplin, both on the artistic front - he did not embrace talking cinema from the beginning, and on the political side - because being admired by so many, he started to become a target.
The rest of his career was quite a struggle, with the release of the groundbreaking The Great Dictator (1940), openly mocking and attacking both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in the middle of World War II. In this film, the tramp character speaks for the very first time in more than twenty years of films, and no one would have expected the character to be so eloquent. Here is the famous speech:
Even though this film is self-explanatory today, at the time, he was accused of being a communist. In these McCarthyism years of witch-hunt, the FBI started an investigation on him, which forced him to leave the United States.
He still produced the excellent Monsieur Verdoux, released in 1947, as well as Limelight, in 1952. His last two movies were not in the same vein as the others, A King in New York (1957) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Later in his career, living near the beautiful lake of Geneva, in Switzerland, Chaplin composed some wonderful music to his early movies, making them even more sublime that they already were, crafting a perfect jewel as a true perfectionist.
Because while many remember only the tramp character, few know that Charles Chaplin was an outstanding composer. One of his famous songs were from Modern Times:
Chaplin being a very proud man, the one and only time he came back to the United States was in 1972, to receive a lifetime award at the Oscars, in which he thanked the audience, having no real words, as "words seem so futile."
Indeed, words do seem futile, when put in front of the remarkable achievement from that poor London kid, who traveled the world and became adored by millions. So, instead of ending this article with words, I will let you with the ending scene from City Lights, which needs no word.
Gruic
Rank: FBI Special Agent
Posts: 350
Joined: 2017-10-13
Amazing work and article for the King of the cinema. Fabulous.
But let's not forget the other man of the duo, [url=https://www.tvore.com/?page=star&id=19320]Eric Campbell. We will celebrate his birthday in 10 days. His death in 1917 changed the cinema forever, turning his duo with Chaplin into a one man show.
