An impressive documentary about arguably the greatest movie star of all time was made by British documentary duo Peter Middleton – James Spinney. While the title of “The Real Charlie Chaplin” may sound a bit pretentious, as if the authors have a desire to discover something new about a man about whom absolutely everything is known, it’s a great biographical documentary after which it’s clear that it’s impossible to figure out who he really was. that ridiculous little man whom the whole world adored to be trampled on with equal passion afterwards. This film was composed almost exclusively of archival footage or excerpts from Chaplin’s films with the addition of some staged parts.
The story starts from the very beginnings, from Chaplin’s childhood and growing up in an orphanage and on the streets of London, the beginnings of a comedy career, first film appearances, an express breakthrough among the biggest stars and a tragic end to which he contributed. We see here how this poor guy from England suddenly drove the world crazy with his role of the likeable Hobo, but we also see here his dark side. All the controversies surrounding Charlie Chaplin during his lifetime are there, but at the same time we understand his genius, mystery, perfectionism that led him to become the ultimate star of early film.
In fact, it is completely incomprehensible how it is at all possible that a guy like Chaplin became a star at all and how out of unimaginable misery he practically overnight became a fabulous rich man and a man whose face is recognized by absolutely everyone. But we see in this film that the real Charlie Chaplin was in fact the complete opposite of Charlie Chaplin whom people knew and loved in the film, a difficult character, almost a complex who, according to those who knew him, was driven by a mortal fear of poverty and would to become living in misery again. We see here all his escapades with women and girls whom he (mostly) treated badly and if Chaplin had lived in the present day, he would probably have gone through like Harvey Weinstein and the like.
But Chaplin did equally badly at a time when, after a decade of silence, he finally decided to speak up. And after the sound film was replaced by a silent one, he continued to shoot in the old style, his tramp did not speak until the movie “The Great Dictator”. And then Chaplin didn’t stop with a story that cost him dearly in a few years. In just a few years from a hero who was an opponent of Nazism, he became the number one enemy of the state and the main target of Senator McCarty and his hunt for real and imaginary communists. Eventually Chaplin experienced something that would be called “canceling” today, he was literally expelled from America, and it happened for the completely wrong reasons. The fact that he abused women was less important, but he was declared a communist and literally expelled from America, which had celebrated him as a national treasure only a year or two earlier. A great documentary reminiscent of the mystery of Charlie Chaplin.
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