Chaplin's first movie restored!
October 29, 2004
Restored film recaptures Charlie Chaplin's lost genius
By Jack Malvern, Arts Reporter
TimesOnline
CHARLIE CHAPLIN’S first appearance as the Little Tramp, the character who defined his career, has been shown in all its clarity for the first time since 1914 at The Times bfi London Film Festival.
Kid Auto Races, part of a season of restored films at the Festival, has been cleaned up after years of deterioration that turned Chaplin’s expressive face into a white blur.
Early prints of the film were so popular that they soon wore out and had to be duplicated, a process that reduced the quality of the film.
Copies held by most sources today are sixth or seventh generation duplicates.
For the restored version, technicians scoured archives from the National Film Archive in Berkhamstead and America’s Library of Congress for the earliest film stock. The 18-minute film is largely pictures of Chaplin surrounded by crowds, but restorers found a close-up of the actor on a 1916 rerelease of the film retitled Take My Picture.
The plot involves Chaplin attempting to get noticed by a film crew that is trying to record a children’s go-kart race. The crowd, who grow increasingly annoyed with Chaplin’s antics, was made up of civilians rather than actors.
David Robinson, editor of Chaplin’s autobiography, said that it was an early example of improvised comedy. “The thing that makes this extraordinary is that it is a documentary of how people reacted seeing Charlie Chaplin for the first time in this costume,” he said. “It was made off the cuff — the film-makers would go to the park or to a football match on a weekend and use crowds as a backdrop.
“On the weekend they shot Kid Auto Races, Chaplin decided to get a new costume. Hans Koenekamp, who shot films for Keystone, told me that he remembered Chaplin coming out of a a dressing room. Chaplin had created a new character with a sense of broken down gentility.” Another Chaplin film restored for the festival was Mabel’s Married Life, in which the actor played a drunk who won’t stand up to his wife’s suitor. Restorers discovered that the original 1914 print was funnier than later versions, which were filled with captions. Bryony Dixon, of the British Film Institute’s Archive, said that the additions had ruined most of the jokes. “Someone had inserted a lot of captions containing irritating puns that made the film much more choppy.”
Other restored Chaplin films included Getting Acquainted and Mabel at the Wheel.
Mr Robinson said that the restored version showed the actor’s genius. “There is a wonderful expression on his face when he thinks Mabel is on the back of his motorbike and he finds out she has fallen into a puddle. On unrestored versions you could not make out his face,” he said.
The Treasures from the Archives season will also showcase a restored version of Jean Renoir’s 1951 film The River, starring Nora Swinburne and Adrienne Corri. Ms Corri, now 70, will attend the screening on Saturday, October 30.
The Times bfi London Film Festival continues until November 4.
... Justin