As a tribute for the 100th anniversary of The Kid (made in 1919 and presented to the public in 1920), ICFFCY wanted to screen it and make a special event of this unique character and actor. Due to the world sanitary situation that started in March 2019, our project has been postponed.
Who was this incredible man who is going through time like it was only yesterday we met him. Our children are still watching him and are laughing where precisely our grand-parents, parents and ourselves laughed to tears.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in England in 1889. He started his career when he was 10 in a tap dancing children group, then he was an actor on the West End. He joined a Circus, and later was part of a Cabaret act where his comic style quickly made him a star. In 1913, Mack Sennett noticed him while touring in America, and he hired him in a long series of shorts during which he created his famous character, the Tramp.
Then success was his trademark and made him famous all over the world. We cannot list all his works, but The Immigrant, The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Dictator are among the best films he made.
Due to the political paranoia in the US after World War II, Chaplin was suspected of being a communist sympathizer. He made a few other movies, but only Limelight made it to the top with an elderly Charlie Chaplin meeting with legendary Buster Keaton. All his other films (Monsieur Verdoux, A King in New York, A Countess from Hong Kong) were not successful, although they are being rediscovered lately.
Chaplin, instead of fighting his way back to the US, decided to move to Switzerland in the 50’s with his wife and many children, wrote two autobiographies, scenarios and musical scores until his death in 1977, at the age of 88.
Thank you Mr. Chaplin, a tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer… Long live the tramp! Thank you Chaplin’s World © for existing.
Photo credit: public domain
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