Chaplin | |
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Directed by | Richard Attenborough |
Screenplay by | |
Story by | Diana Hawkins |
Based on | |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Sven Nykvist |
Edited by | Anne V. Coates |
Music by | John Barry |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Guild Film Distribution (United Kingdom) [1] TriStar Pictures (United States) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 145 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $31 million |
Box office | $12 million (US/UK) |
Chaplin is a 1992 biographical comedy-drama film about the life of English comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. It was produced and directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Dan Aykroyd, Penelope Ann Miller and Kevin Kline. It also features Charlie Chaplin's own daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, in the role of his mother, Hannah Chaplin.
The film was adapted by William Boyd, Bryan Forbes and William Goldman from Chaplin's 1964 book My Autobiography and the 1985 book Chaplin: His Life and Art by film critic David Robinson. Associate producer Diana Hawkins got a story credit. The original music score was composed by John Barry. [2] [3]
The film underperformed at the box office, grossing $12 million against a $31 million budget, and received mixed reviews from critics; Downey's titular performance, however, garnered critical acclaim and won him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor along with nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
An elderly Charlie Chaplin reminisces during a 1962 conversation in Switzerland with George Hayden, the fictionalized editor of his autobiography.
In the Victorian era East End of London, Chaplin escapes his poverty-stricken childhood by immersing himself in the world of variety circuit. In 1894, after his mother Hannah loses her voice onstage, five-year-old Charlie takes her place. Hannah is eventually committed to an asylum after developing psychosis. Over the years, Chaplin and his brother Sydney gain work with variety producer Fred Karno, who later sends him to the United States. He begins a relationship with dancer Hetty Kelly and soon proposes to her. However, Kelly declines, reasoning she is too young. Chaplin vows to return when he is a success.
In America, Chaplin is employed by famous comedy producer Mack Sennett. He creates the Tramp persona, and due to the terrible directorial abilities of Sennett's girlfriend Mabel Normand, he becomes his own director. After Sydney becomes his manager, Chaplin breaks from Sennett to gain creative control over his films, with the goal of one day owning his own studio. In 1917, he completes work on his film The Immigrant and starts a two-year relationship with actress Edna Purviance.
Years later, at a party thrown by Douglas Fairbanks, Chaplin dates child actress Mildred Harris. He sets up his own studio and becomes "the most famous man in the world" before his 30th birthday. Chaplin tells Fairbanks that he must marry Harris because she is pregnant but later learns it is a hoax. Chaplin has a confrontation with J. Edgar Hoover about actor/directors and propaganda. This sparks a 40-year-long vendetta by Hoover.
Harris's divorce lawyers claim Chaplin's film The Kid as an asset. Chaplin and Sydney flee with the footage, finish editing it in a Salt Lake City hotel, then smuggle it back to Los Angeles.
The brothers arrange for their mother to join them, but Chaplin cannot cope with her worsened condition. In 1921, Chaplin attends the UK premiere of The Kid. He hopes to locate Hetty, but soon learns that she died in the influenza epidemic. Chaplin also discovers the British working class resent him for not joining the British armed forces during World War I as they did.
Back in America, Hoover digs into Chaplin's private life, suspecting him of Pro-Soviet sympathies. Chaplin is forced to consider the effect of "talkies" on his career. Despite the popularity of sound films, he vows never to make a talkie featuring the Tramp.
In 1925, Chaplin makes The Gold Rush and marries bit-part actress Lita Grey. However, he later says to George that he always thought of her as a "total bitch" and barely mentions her in his autobiography. Chaplin marries Paulette Goddard and feels a sense of guilt and sympathy for the millions unemployed due to the Wall Street Crash (Chaplin sold most of his shares the year before the crash). Chaplin decides to address the issue in Modern Times , but his dedication to this film results in the breakup of his marriage.
At an industry party, the partially Roma Chaplin refuses to shake hands with a visiting Nazi. Fairbanks comments that Chaplin resembles Adolf Hitler, inspiring him to create The Great Dictator . The film, which satirizes Nazism, is a hit worldwide and further enrages Hoover, who believes it to be anti-American propaganda.
Chaplin marries actress Oona O'Neill, who resembles Hetty. However, it is alleged that he is the father of the child of former lover Joan Barry. Despite a blood test proving that the child is not his, Chaplin is ordered to provide financial support after the blood test is declared inadmissible in court. With his reputation damaged, he stays out of the public eye for over seven years until producing Limelight . During McCarthyism, the Chaplins leave America together on a visit to Britain, but then the United States Attorney General revokes his re-entry permit.
In 1972, Chaplin is invited back to America to receive a special Academy Honorary Award. Despite being initially resentful after two decades in exile and certain that no one will even remember him, he is moved to tears when the audience laughs at footage from his films and gives Chaplin the Academy Awards' longest standing ovation ever.
Richard Attenborough acquired the rights to Chaplin's biography in 1988 and intended to make it with Universal. [4] According to Marc Wanamaker, who served as an advisor on the film, Attenborough had thought of making a miniseries at one point, to fully explore Chaplin's life. [5] Although Attenborough wanted Robert Downey Jr. for the part of Chaplin, studio executives wanted Robin Williams or Billy Crystal for the role. [6] [7] Jim Carrey was also considered. [8] On David Letterman's Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Downey Jr. revealed that Attenborough had also been interested in Tom Cruise for the role, but Cruise declined the offer. [9] [10] The film had a four-hour cut that was later edited down to two and a half hours for release. [5]
The film received mixed reviews, lauded for its high production values, but many critics dismissed it as an overly glossy biopic. [11] Although the film was criticized for taking dramatic license with some aspects of Chaplin's life, Downey's performance as Chaplin won universal acclaim. Attenborough was sufficiently confident in Downey's performance to include historical footage of Chaplin himself at the end of the film.
According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of critics have given Chaplin a positive review based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Chaplin boasts a terrific performance from Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role, but it isn't enough to overcome a formulaic biopic that pales in comparison to its subject's classic films." [12] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A-" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times lauded Downey's performance, and deemed the film "extremely appreciative". [14] Todd McCarthy of Variety remarked that Chaplin's life was too grand to be properly captured in a film, criticizing the screenplay, but praised the casting and the film's first hour. [15]
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, dubbing the film, "a disappointing, misguided movie that has all of the parts in place to be a much better one", but praised Downey and the production values. [16] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt Attenborough's filmmaking and Chaplin's life were ill-suited to each other, but said of Downey, "Lithe and lively and looking remarkably like the younger Chaplin, Downey does more than master the man’s celebrated duck walk and easy grace. In one of those acts of will and creativity that actors come up with when you least expect it, Downey becomes Chaplin, re-creating his character and his chilly soul so precisely that even the comedian’s daughter Geraldine, a featured player here, was both impressed and unnerved." [17]
The film grossed £1.8 million ($2.7 million) in the United Kingdom [18] and $9.5 million in the United States. [19]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
---|---|---|---|
20/20 Awards | Best Actor | Robert Downey Jr. | Nominated |
Best Original Score | John Barry | Nominated | |
Academy Awards [20] | Best Actor | Robert Downey Jr. | Nominated |
Best Art Direction | Art Direction: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Chris A. Butler | Nominated | |
Best Original Score | John Barry | Nominated | |
Artios Awards [21] | Best Casting for Feature Film – Drama | Mike Fenton | Nominated |
Awards Circuit Community Awards | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Robert Downey Jr. | Nominated |
Best Makeup & Hairstyling | Wally Schneiderman, Jill Rockow and John Caglione Jr. | Nominated | |
Best Production Design | Stuart Craig and Chris A. Butler | Nominated | |
British Academy Film Awards [22] | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Robert Downey Jr. | Won |
Best Costume Design | John Mollo and Ellen Mirojnick | Nominated | |
Best Make Up Artist | Wally Schneiderman, Jill Rockow and John Caglione Jr. | Nominated | |
Best Production Design | Stuart Craig | Nominated | |
British Society of Cinematographers [23] | Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film | Sven Nykvist | Nominated |
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards [24] | Best Actor | Robert Downey Jr. | Nominated |
Most Promising Actress | Marisa Tomei (also for My Cousin Vinny ) | Won | |
Fantasporto | International Fantasy Film | Richard Attenborough | Nominated |
Golden Globe Awards [25] | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama | Robert Downey Jr. | Nominated |
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Geraldine Chaplin | Nominated | |
Best Original Score – Motion Picture | John Barry | Nominated | |
London Film Critics Circle Awards | Actor of the Year | Robert Downey Jr. | Won |
Moscow International Film Festival [26] | Golden St. George | Richard Attenborough | Nominated |
The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1993 and later on DVD in 1997, and on LaserDisc by Live Home Video on July 5, 1998. A 15th-anniversary edition was released by Lions Gate Entertainment (who obtained the distribution rights to the film in the interim under license from the copyright holder, StudioCanal) in 2008. The anniversary edition contained extensive interviews with the producers, and included several minutes of home-movie footage shot on Chaplin's yacht. The box for this DVD mistakenly lists the film's running time as 135 minutes, although it retains the 143-minute length of the original theatrical release. [27]
The 15th Anniversary Edition was later released on Blu-ray on February 15, 2011.
The soundtrack to Chaplin was released on December 15, 1992.
A newly expanded soundtrack with 35 tracks to celebrate the film's 30 anniversary was released by La La Land Records in 2023. [28] [ non-primary source needed ]
No. | Title | Artist | Length |
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1. | "Chaplin - Main Theme" | John Barry | 3:06 |
2. | "Early Days in London" | John Barry | 4:18 |
3. | "Charlie Proposes" | John Barry | 3:01 |
4. | "To California / The Cutting Room" | John Barry | 3:45 |
5. | "Discovering the Tramp / The Wedding Chase" | John Barry | 4:01 |
6. | "Chaplin's Studio Opening" | John Barry | 1:58 |
7. | "Salt Lake City Episode" | John Barry | 2:11 |
8. | "The Roll Dance" | John Barry | 2:34 |
9. | "News of Hetty's Death / Smile" | John Barry | 3:42 |
10. | "From London to L.A." | John Barry | 3:21 |
11. | "Joan Barry Trouble / Oona Arrives" | John Barry | 2:15 |
12. | "Remembering Hetty" | John Barry | 2:57 |
13. | "Smile" | Charles Chaplin | 2:06 |
14. | "The Roll Dance" | John Barry | 1:47 |
15. | "Chaplin - Main Theme / Smile" | John Barry | 4:46 |
16. | "Smile (Performed by Robert Downey Jr.)" | John Barry | 3:38 |
Total length: | 49:26 [29] |
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
Robert John Downey Jr. is an American actor. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $14 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Downey's career has been characterized by some early success, a period of drug-related problems and run-ins with the law, and a surge in popular and commercial success in the 2000s. In 2008, Downey was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. From 2013 to 2015, he was listed by Forbes as Hollywood's highest-paid actor.
Robert John Downey Sr. was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He was known for writing and directing his underground film Putney Swope (1969), a satire on the New York Madison Avenue advertising world. According to film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon, Downey's films during the 1960s were "strictly take-no-prisoners affairs, with minimal budgets and outrageous satire, effectively pushing forward the countercultural agenda of the day." He was the father of American actor Robert Downey Jr.
Amabel Ethelreid Normand, better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own film studio and production company, the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. On screen, she appeared in twelve successful films with Charlie Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing films featuring Chaplin as her leading man.
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin is an American actress whose long career has included roles in English, French, and Spanish films.
Moira Kelly is an American actress. She is known for portraying Kate Moseley in the 1992 film The Cutting Edge as well as single mother Karen Roe on the teen drama One Tree Hill. She is also known for playing the role of Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, replacing Lara Flynn Boyle in the prequel to the 1990 TV series Twin Peaks. Other roles include Dorothy Day in Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story, White House media consultant Mandy Hampton in the first season of The West Wing, and the voice of Simba's love interest Nala in The Lion King and its direct-to-video sequels The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1½. She also played Hetty Kelly and Oona O'Neill in Chaplin.
Little Tramp is a musical with a book by David Pomeranz and Steven David Horwich and music and lyrics by David Pomeranz.
Sydney John Chaplin was an English actor. Chaplin was the elder half-brother of actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager in later life.
Mildred Harris was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was age 10. She was also the first wife of Charlie Chaplin.
Mack Swain was a prolific early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett’s comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major features by Charlie Chaplin and starred in both the world's first feature length comedy and first film to feature a "movie-within-a-movie" premise.
Richard Warren Schickel was an American film historian, journalist, author, documentarian, and film and literary critic. He was a film critic for Time from 1965–2010, and also wrote for Life and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. His last writings about film were for Truthdig.
The 46th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 21 March 1993 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 1992. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 1992.
Gordon S. Griffith was an American assistant director, film producer, and one of the first child actors in the American movie industry. Griffith worked in the film industry for five decades, acting in over 60 films, and surviving the transition from silent films to talkies—films with sound. During his acting career, he worked with Charlie Chaplin, and was the first actor to portray Tarzan on film.
Paul Rhys is a Welsh theatre, television and film actor.
Alice Howell was a silent film comedy actress from New York City. She was the mother of actress Yvonne Howell.
Robert Downey Jr. is an American actor who has starred in numerous films, and television series. Downey made his acting debut in 1970's Pound, directed by his father Robert Downey Sr., at the age of five. In the 1980s, Downey was considered a member of the Brat Pack after appearing in the films Weird Science with Anthony Michael Hall (1985), Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield (1986), Less than Zero with Andrew McCarthy (1987), and Johnny Be Good again with Hall (1988). Downey also starred in the films True Believer (1989) and Chances Are (1989), and was a regular cast member on the late-night variety show Saturday Night Live in 1985.
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin is a 2003 American biographical documentary film written and directed by film critic Richard Schickel. The film explores the personal and professional life of the British actor, comedian and filmmaker, Charlie Chaplin, as well as his legacy and influence. It is narrated by Sydney Pollack along with many Hollywood personalities appearing in the film talking about Chaplin, including Robert Downey Jr., Norman Lloyd, Bill Irwin, Woody Allen, Johnny Depp, Richard Attenborough, Martin Scorsese, Miloš Forman, Marcel Marceau, David Raksin, Claire Bloom, David Thomson, Andrew Sarris, Jeanine Basinger and Chaplin's children Geraldine, Michael and Sydney Chaplin. The documentary also benefits from insight from key Chaplin biographers David Robinson and Jeffrey Vance.
FlorenceHenrietta "Hetty" Kelly was an Irish dancer and music hall performer and the first love of movie comedian Charlie Chaplin.
Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Chaplin, also known by the stage name Lily Harley, was an English actress, singer and dancer who performed in British music halls from the age of 16.
Dismissed on its release by many critics as a typically fluffy paean to Chaplin ... this sumptuous biopic may have a touch too much gloss, but it's anything but bland.