The London Charlie Chaplin Festival which runs from the 15th to the 23rd of July, aims to be ‘a celebration of the life and works of South London’s favourite son.’
The event will be ‘the first comprehensive celebration of Chaplin in and around the beloved streets of his childhood’ and will feature two outdoor screenings in Southwark and Westminster, and another one in Lambeth.
As well as the festival, this month will also play host to The Charles Chaplin Conference at the London College of Communications, which neatly coincides with ‘the establishment of the British Film Institute’s Charlie Chaplin Research Programme, which is designed to foster innovative research in relation to Chaplin and his contemporaries.’
Interest in Charlie Chaplin doesn’t seem to have waned since he made his first appearance as ‘The Little Tramp’, in the silent film Kid Auto Races (1912). The film propelled Chaplin, then aged 23, into movie stardom and the Tramp character, with his iconic baggy trousers, bandy legs, wobbly walk, cane, bowler hat and moustache, came to be his hallmark. Chaplin went on to become a household name in Europe and America, where for many years, until the advent of films with sound in 1927, he remained Hollywood’s greatest star. The extent of Chaplin’s fame is difficult to imagine in the current climate of celebrity. He was unique, a true genius who generated the kind of excessive attention, bordering on pandemonium, that is reserved now only for military dictators with armies willing to force their fearful subjects to explode with gratitude upon sight of them. For Chaplin, such a public response was commonplace.
However, whilst riding high on the wave of success Chaplin failed to recognise the shift in the entertainment paradigm heralded by the arrival of ‘talkies’ technology. In reference to the new art form of cinema with sound, he once remarked, “Words can defeat the imagination. They destroy the illusion.” His lack of foresight is now legendary and marked the beginning of a sharp downward trajectory in his career, exacerbated by his portrayal of Hitler as an aggressive lunatic in The Great Dictator (1940), which was also Chaplin’s first ‘talkie.’ The portrayal unnerved cinema audiences and was considered overbearing in its attempt to take the moral high ground exemplified in the politically charged speech at the end of the film.
Indeed, it was Chaplin’s political views and apparent moral delinquency that were fated to end his love affair with the American public. His left-leaning views led the infamous FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to order that a file be kept on Chaplin and in 1952, after a visit to England, the entertainer had his right of entry revoked. The public outcry was puny as Chaplin was a known womaniser and had suffered publicly following a string of scandals involving relationships with young women. To put it kindly, his penchant for young women and leftist political views were his undoing. Chaplin was told that he would not be allowed back into the country unless he could prove he was a reformed character. He decided to cut his losses and spent the remainder of his life in a new home at Vevey, Switzerland, where he died in 1977.
England might have been his obvious second home but after being snubbed for a knighthood in 1956 it was obvious that his political views were not welcome at home any more than they were in America. He was eventually awarded a knighthood in 1975
In a career spanning almost five decades –his last film was A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)- Chaplin’s contribution to the art of cinema is widely regarded as incalculable. He won two honorary awards at the Oscars, the first was in 1929 for The Circus, presented “for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing.’ The second was in 1972 when he was awarded an honorary Oscar for ‘the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century.’ In a wonderful twist of irony he arrived in America to collect the award just a few weeks before the death of his old nemesis J. Edgar Hoover.
His dramatic life story is as much a part of his fame as his films and inspired Richard Attenborough’s critically panned 1992 biopic Chaplin. Although the film did not seem to capture the essence either of the man or his art, Attenborough’s regard for Chaplin appears to be genuine and he is listed as a patron of the British Film Institute’s Charles Chaplin Research Foundation. In an introduction to the legendary entertainer which appears on the British Film Institute website, Attenborough writes: “Charlie Chaplin has been an inspiration to me since childhood. He was the first star actor I ever saw on the cinema screen and his legendary ability to make an audience cry and then almost immediately laugh was greatly responsible for my eventual choice of career.”
The British Film Institute sponsored Charles Chaplin Research programme aims to provide a focal point for access to Chaplin related information, including films, research, critical essays and biographies. Having a single source for comprehensive information about the most famous and influential English entertainer in recent history, and in conjunction with the promotional activities of the current festival, will serve to raise awareness of the entertainer to a new generation of performers. And therein lies the value of the projects.
Above all Chaplin was an insightful hard-working entertainer who thrived on exhaustive pre-shoot preparations. Even today analysis of his work can contribute to a better understanding of comedic timing and the art of pantomime. In his legendary performances it was said that Chaplin was able to convey the ‘silent language of the soul,’ (James Agee). In his own lifetime Chaplin buoyed the ups and down of unbelievable fame and success, along with vilification at the hands of the Establishment and public humiliation. He was the first true media superstar and also its foremost rogue and villain, but his work lives on in spite of his notoriety to influence and inspire. And with the establishment of the British Film Institute research programme his enduring legacy is assured.