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00:00THE END
00:00THE END
00:10How do you do, sir? I'm Charlie Chaplin.
00:15Chaplin sent me a telegram.
00:17But, Montana.
00:19You've hired me for a year, Mr. Senning.
00:21You can't be Chaplin.
00:23The guy I hired did the best comedy drunk I ever saw.
00:25But he was old. I don't pay a hundred a week to juveniles.
00:29Another one, boss.
00:30No, no, we'll move on.
00:31Mr. Sennett!
00:39There can be no argument that Charles Spencer Chaplin
00:43is the most iconic figure in movie history.
00:45Through his silent film persona as the tramp
00:48and his dazzling talent behind the camera,
00:51he transformed cinema into an art form.
00:54So, if nothing else, it is an act of great daring
00:58to take on such a man.
01:00With Chaplin, director Richard Attenborough does much more.
01:04This is a passionate, richly detailed biopic
01:07of one of cinema's founding fathers.
01:09What is it about the life of Charlie Chaplin
01:12that makes him such a worthwhile subject for a biopic?
01:15Well, Charlie Chaplin does encompass
01:18almost all of the 20th century,
01:19so the events of his life cover the key events
01:23of one of the most tumultuous centuries.
01:25Also, he is a particular kind of man,
01:27and he's the kind of man that lends itself well to biopics
01:31in that he's driven, he's passionate, he's damaged
01:34and therefore the decisions he makes
01:37are not necessarily the decisions we'd make.
01:39He's incredibly famous as a result,
01:41but it doesn't make him happy.
01:43These are all the great things for a biopic.
01:46The coming from nowhere, in his case, extreme poverty,
01:49the getting to somewhere
01:50and it not giving you what you want.
02:01Okay.
02:03You might be chaplain after all.
02:06The coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:08the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:10the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:11the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:13the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:13the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:14the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:14the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:14the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:14the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:15the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:16the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:19the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:24the coming from nowhere, in his case,
02:30the coming from nowhere,
02:55In a sensational central performance,
02:58Robert Downey Jr. portrays Chaplin both on and off screen,
03:02from teenager to oxygenarian,
03:05convincingly capturing both his outward glamour and inner turmoil.
03:09This is a highly textured portrait of a highly complex artist.
03:14Charlie Chaplin remains, I think, one of our great geniuses of the art of motion pictures.
03:21And even people who don't know much about him
03:23probably recognise the iconic image of him as a little tramp with his moustache and cane.
03:28And so when Richard Attenborough makes this film,
03:32which encompasses not just the biography of Chaplin,
03:34but really a history of the early part of Hollywood
03:37and silent pictures going into talkies,
03:40he's sort of introducing that to a brand new audience in the 90s.
03:44Charlie Chaplin is vitally significant in the evolution of cinema.
03:48He is, in fact, one of the most important figures in the early period of Hollywood.
03:54He was the man who took basically silent comedy, which was relatively unsophisticated,
04:00and dragged it into the 20th century with a greater deal of sophistication and also social conscience.
04:08He was able, somehow, through his character of the little tramp,
04:13to engage with the audience in a way that hadn't been done before,
04:19because behind that figure, with whom many people could identify,
04:24because, of course, these films, the great films, were made during the Great Depression,
04:28he could then not only send himself up, but he could also show the spirit of someone who was down
04:37but not out.
04:38And it's also an extraordinary time for mankind, isn't it?
04:42This is technological change. There's the invention of an art form,
04:45but the period in which Charlie Chaplin sort of comes of age is sort of the move into the industrial
04:50century, isn't it?
04:52Well, it's the industrialization of the arts. I mean, we've had the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century,
04:57and where Chaplin is, he's at the point where creative arts are becoming industrialized.
05:02In particular, we see him in Hollywood at a time when it begins, like a factory,
05:07and very gradually becomes an artistic endeavor.
05:10But he's encompassing how ideas about what we do with all this machinery
05:15to create something beautiful, something funny, something tragic.
05:18He's critical in helping us understand how to use things like a movie camera
05:23and make something out of it that isn't simply knocking out 20-minute short films.
05:28And who's this sitting on top of the world?
05:31Why, it's none other than Charlie Chaplin, back in the old Keystone days
05:35when his pathetic little figure first taught millions of grouches how to smile.
05:39And here we see him a couple of million dollars later.
05:43But you'll notice there are silver threads among the gold.
05:46We get the many shades of a remarkable life,
05:49the rise from London poverty to Hollywood fame,
05:52the pursuit of all the possibilities of film and its attendant stardom,
05:57and also the womanizing and political views that tested his welcome in America
06:02and eventually would bring about his downfall.
06:06Chaplin as a film has all of the beats that you would want from a biopic
06:11or from a film from this period, which is lavish period detail,
06:14the glamour of Hollywood bygone times,
06:17this sort of idea that the creative process is a difficult and costly one for the artist.
06:23And of course, Chaplin's life was incredibly glamorous.
06:25He was the first really major international film star
06:29and one of the most famous men in the world.
06:31And the art form was so new that he sort of lived out how that would affect the future
06:38and what that meant to people.
06:40This is indeed a very emotional moment for me.
06:45You're all here.
06:47I didn't realize, and I want to take this occasion to thank you
06:54and to express, if I possibly can in words, although words are inetable,
06:59I can't express the wonderful friendship,
07:03this marvellous friendly and love I've felt ever since my arrival here.
07:10I can't tell you how much it has meant to me to know that I've had such staunch loyal friends.
07:20It's wonderful to be back in my country amongst my people.
07:32Charlie Chaplin is an ideal subject for a film because, of course, he is a creature of the cinema.
07:37Not only that, he had such a full life that it sort of stuffed with incidents.
07:45There's also a great rags to riches story, which, of course, is one of the great narrative arcs of any
07:52biography or any biopic.
07:54So there's everything that you need to make something that is not only relevant to the subject itself,
08:02I mean, the man himself, but also has a kind of meta interest in the fact that it's about the
08:10creation of a certain cinematic style.
08:13It's also a risk, isn't it, taking on the most iconic figure in film history?
08:18Yes, I mean, he was, well, for the 20s and 30s, he was probably one of the most famous men
08:23in the world.
08:24And he is also a particular kind of performer.
08:27He's very skillful, very precise.
08:30So to put someone on screen trying to imitate him, you can't imitate Chaplin.
08:36You can't, oh, we'll do something that's a bit Chaplin style.
08:39You have to be able to be sure that the actor, the performer, is able to have that level of
08:44precision about comedic timing that Chaplin had
08:47that would make the simplest things funny, which is incredibly hard.
08:51There's a reason why there's really only one Charlie Chaplin, and that's because it's very hard to do what he
08:57did.
08:57What do you think makes for a good biopic, just in the general sense of the genre?
09:02I think a good biopic has to be laced with tragedy.
09:06We are not going to go to the cinema to watch someone become incredibly wealthy and live happily ever after.
09:11That's not what we like.
09:12We are aware that with the deals that we do for fame, it's like the blues singers at the crossroads,
09:20the deals that we do for fame bring about great costs.
09:24But also, we're also aware that artists are normally damaged, that there's something they're carrying with them.
09:29To want to do this in that sort of way, that obsessive way, they're driven by something, and we're fascinated.
09:35What is it that drives an artist?
09:38And with Chaplin, it begins, and certainly the film argues it begins, with his poverty-stricken upbringing,
09:46with his mother going to the madhouse, and with him falling in love with a girl who he never sees
09:52again.
09:53So there's a lot of tragedy at the beginning, which he's really unable to resolve.
09:56He's always trying to find a way to use the money he has to find the happiness he's lost.
10:04We also get a fabulous portrait of Hollywood's sunlit infancy, and the changing face of a nation across the first
10:11half of the 20th century.
10:13The little man makes for a big subject.
10:19He was the FBI, old darling.
10:22Said he knew what a loyal American I was.
10:25Wondered if everyone else felt the same way.
10:28I just sat there and let him work his way around to you, which he did.
10:33He asked, were you a member of the Communist Party?
10:37Said that was an absolute impossibility.
10:40Because I love America.
10:41Because you're too cheap to pay the dues.
10:45Remarkable, your timing in work is flawless.
10:47In life, it's the reverse.
10:55In 1992, Attenborough was celebrating 50 years in the film industry, both as star and director.
11:01He specialised in transforming real lives into epic dramas.
11:06With Winston Churchill, apartheid martyr Stephen Biko, and an Oscar-lauded Life of Gandhi behind him.
11:14When a biopic of American revolutionary hero Thomas Paine fell apart, he was at a loss where to turn next.
11:21Richard Attenborough, by the time of making Chaplin in 1992, was a recognised and beloved veteran of the motion picture
11:29industry, both in front of the camera and behind it.
11:32He had starred in the indelible role of Pinky and Brighton Rock back in the 40s, and went through doing
11:38a series of amazing war pictures, and then went on to direct films like Gandhi, which would win him Best
11:45Director in 1983.
11:46Richard Attenborough's reputation in 1992 was, after 50 years in the business, absolutely unassailable.
11:55He was actually a kind of national treasure, to be honest.
11:58Of the 12 films that he actually made, only three of those are not based on real people or real
12:04events.
12:05So he was very attracted to real lives and tracing their kind of trajectory over often many, many years.
12:16He is, you know, the archetypal biopic director.
12:20Essentially, he's almost invented the form, didn't he?
12:23Richard Attenborough Yes, he did.
12:24I mean, he invented the form with films about Winston Churchill, young Winston, concentrating on a very specific period of
12:30his life.
12:31In fact, this is the most interesting thing, I think, about the film Chaplin, is it stands out from his
12:34biopics.
12:35He does young Winston, he does Biko, and he does Gandhi, and later he will go on to do Shadowlands.
12:41But these are key figures in the 20th century again.
12:44You know, obviously Churchill, Biko, an anti-apartheid campaigner, critical anti-apartheid campaigner.
12:49And these are people who bring about change. Without them, we would have a different world today.
12:55And so that's what interests us.
12:58And so Chaplin's decisions change art forever.
13:04But he doesn't know that. He's unaware.
13:07What he's doing is he's being driven by the thing that hurts and the desire for some kind of peace.
13:14And that is why we watch.
13:16Because if we just had someone writing a great song and becoming famous, great.
13:21We don't care.
13:22It was Diana Hawkins, Attenborough's long-term assistant, who came up with the answer.
13:27She drew up a list of everything she thought Attenborough looked for in his world-changing life stories and something
13:35closer to home.
13:36At the bottom of the list, she scribbled CC.
13:40When Attenborough realized she meant Charlie Chaplin, he leapt at the chance to celebrate the supreme figure of his own
13:47art form.
13:48So Richard Attenborough had actually made the acquaintance of Charlie Chaplin in the 1950s and, like many who were in
13:54cinema, was a huge admirer of his.
13:56So he, I guess, had on some level it in the back of his brain and loved Chaplin very much.
14:02But it hadn't been at the forefront of his thoughts and he had recently had a project fall through and
14:07was feeling quite depressed about it.
14:08So enter his long-time publicist and assistant and creative collaborator, Diana Hawkins.
14:15She, knowing that he loved Chaplin, and feeling that, actually, if he were to take on that project, that all
14:21the best talent in Hollywood would be drawn to it because of the subject and how beloved Chaplin was.
14:26She put a list on his desk and floated the idea of Chaplin to him.
14:32And that was the beginning.
14:33And she kind of graduated from being a publicist to being credited as a producer and co-writer on Chaplin.
14:40Chaplin and Attenborough met.
14:42They knew each other briefly towards the end of Chaplin's life, and he was obsessed by him.
14:46But he'd come up himself through a very different kind of route into acting.
14:51One of his early roles was Pinky in Brighton Rock, which is definitely not a Chaplin role.
14:56It's a psychotic, killer, really, really mesmerizing actor.
15:00And he was able to play an enormous range of characters.
15:05He could play comedy.
15:06He could play hard working class.
15:09He could play posh.
15:10He had an enormously diverse range of talent.
15:13So he understood the challenge of acting.
15:15He understood the possibilities of acting.
15:17But gradually, he became more and more interested in production and directing.
15:23Beginning with Oh, What a Lovely War, which was 1969.
15:27And then moving more into his biopics.
15:29Until by the 1980s, he was rarely acting.
15:33If so, more cameos, I think.
15:34Do you think there's a sort of an added resonance, though, in the fact that Attenborough is one of the
15:38most famous actor-directors
15:40who there's ever been?
15:41And taking on someone he reveres is much greater than even him.
15:45But it's a love song to the very art form and industry that Attenborough belonged to.
15:51Yes.
15:51And it's a risky thing to do.
15:54It's typically a truth in film and television that the general public don't want to see films or television about
16:01people who make films and television.
16:03But people who are in that industry, they find the artist and they want to explore them.
16:08Attenborough had known Chaplin in his dotage.
16:11They had met by chance at a restaurant in the French Riviera.
16:15The younger director would drop by whenever Chaplin was at the Savoy in London, listening to his stories, catching the
16:22note of sadness.
16:23Years later, getting his daughter Geraldine Chaplin on board was key to gaining the approval of Chaplin's widow, Una.
16:32Her one condition was that she had nothing to do with it.
16:36She entrusted Attenborough with her husband's legacy.
16:39He then acquired the rights to two books, Chaplin's autobiography and David Robinson's biography, very well regarded, in order to
16:51be able to start thinking about this, what would be a grand and, in fact, rather difficult project.
16:58But what he wanted to do, first of all, his initial idea was to make a television miniseries because he
17:06felt that the project was too big to be contained within one movie.
17:12He went to Universal Studios.
17:14They initially liked the idea and they agreed in principle.
17:21He had, on the back of the huge success of Gandhi, got a three picture deal with Universal.
17:26So he knew he had to make three movies.
17:29So he set about making, I mean, Gandhi had been working on for 18 years.
17:33So he must, to some degree, have felt a level of creative sort of completeness and exhaustion to looking around
17:39for something.
17:40What can I do?
17:41To find that, he then was committed to that, not the same level of time, but the same level of
17:47absolute defiant determination to deliver the project.
17:50You would have thought Attenborough would have had the keys to the kingdom after the success of films like Gandhi
17:55and his overall career.
17:57But he struggled with Universal when he approached them for the idea of Chaplin.
18:02They didn't really feel that this dusty old figure was someone that was relevant anymore.
18:07They assumed audiences wouldn't be interested.
18:10Tom Cruise, who was initially chosen for the part, turned it down.
18:14And the person that Attenborough wanted instead was a young actor called Robert Downey Jr.,
18:18who had been in a few things but didn't have a huge amount of star power behind him just yet.
18:23And so there was a lack of confidence on the studio's part.
18:26Also, to complicate matters further, he wanted a $30 million budget for it, which he needed.
18:31And in order to capture this elaborate world over a long period of time as well.
18:37So the production actually stopped or pre-production stopped for about 10 months.
18:43As convinced as Attenborough was that he had the perfect subject, Hollywood was wary of such an expensive project.
18:50There was the fear that Chaplin might not translate to modern times.
18:54Initial plans for a miniseries were shelved.
18:57Then Universal pulled the plug as they were building sets at West Fillmore in California.
19:03Attenborough had to take his begging bowl round Hollywood to save his film.
19:07It was blockbuster indie Carol Coe who scented awards potential in the lavish biopic.
19:15Attenborough had a very difficult time making Chaplin to begin with and getting it off the ground,
19:21because Universal Pictures, first of all, having sort of got cold feet about it, then halved the budget.
19:28They said, you know, you have to find the rest yourself.
19:32Attenborough went to Columbia and they turned him down flat.
19:35He then thought, where can I go?
19:39He went to a studio, Carol Coe, run by Mario Casano.
19:43Carol Coe was known for Rambo films and they made a lot of money through Rambo and Schwarzenegger movies.
19:50And they unbelievably said, we will finance the whole film.
19:55They probably saw it as a prestige product.
19:59It was something that would give them respect and kudos, having made vast amounts of money from, you know, sort
20:06of shoot-'em-ups.
20:07All of my fear and everything came up before doing this film, because this was like saying,
20:13are you, can you really do what you've always hoped and wanted to do?
20:19So it's like, you know, it was like a real judgement day for me.
20:24What did you hope and want to do?
20:26I hoped I could, I could bring him to life on screen.
20:32And I wanted to, I wanted to do it for myself and for Richard, who had had the faith to
20:40give me the opportunity.
20:43Naturally, there were big names in the frame to play Chaplin.
20:46Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal.
20:5026-year-old Robert Downey Jr., one of Los Angeles' Brat Pack generation, won the part the old-fashioned way,
20:58in a screen test.
20:59Nearly tripping on his way in, he ballet danced around the room, moving in and out of character as the
21:05tramp.
21:06It was the way he moved that convinced Attenborough.
21:09The fact that he and Chaplin looked uncannily alike also helped.
21:14Why are you so worried?
21:16Me?
21:17I haven't a care in the world.
21:19I'm the oldest action star in the business, and talkies are coming.
21:23What the hell have I got to be worried about?
21:28That's talkies, Charles.
21:31Talkies!
21:33Talkies!
21:34Can you imagine the tramp talking?
21:36It's the future, Charlie.
21:38Not in my lifetime.
21:40Talkies!
21:41Talkies!
21:42Talkies!
21:43Talkies!
21:47Talkies!
21:48Talkies!
21:51Talkies!
21:52Talkies!
21:54Talkies!
21:55Talkies!
21:55Talkies!
21:55Talkies!
21:56Talkies!
21:57A perfectionist, Chaplin first rehearses his routines in front of the camera, so he may later study and improve every
22:05gesture.
22:05This rare film, a rehearsal without makeup for a scene in city life, shows how carefully Chaplin develops his exquisite
22:14precision.
22:38And allegedly running hisì–´ìš”.
22:43Talkies!
22:44TAnother!
22:44Take i can.
23:07Downey was well aware he was taking on an icon.
23:10He worked with film historians, vocal teachers and movement coaches
23:14He learned how to take a fall, to walk with splayed feet
23:18Or simply how Chaplin sat in a chair
23:20All of it had to feel effortless
23:23That languorous, dishevelled elegance
23:26Those madcap slapstick routines
23:28His entire body had to become Chaplin
23:32Moreover, this isn't just a convincing version of the figure we see on screen
23:37But the man we never knew
23:39Out of character, wrestling with his art
23:42You mentioned briefly that Robert Downey Jr. won the part
23:46In probably the most traditional way there is
23:47He did a screen test
23:49Can you tell me a bit more about that very famous screen test
23:52And what it was that Attenborough saw in him?
23:55Well, the screen test started with an accidental trip
23:59That he walked in front of the camera
24:01And genuinely, unintentionally, almost fell over
24:05That didn't necessarily immediately translate
24:08And Attenborough thought it was deliberate
24:09Excellent And then Robert Downey Jr. used sort of dance techniques
24:14And he moved almost as a ballet dancer
24:17And that's what, really what the vaudeville and the music hall
24:22Slapstick routines were
24:23Is they were choreographed as if they were dance
24:26So he saw that ability to move like a dancer
24:30Which was critical for inhabiting Chaplin
24:32He also looked a bit like him
24:34That was very, very important
24:35I mean, that does a lot of work for you
24:39If you've got a certain physical resemblance
24:41But the performance was just
24:43He had a little
24:44It wasn't quite there
24:45Of course it wasn't there
24:46It took him a year to get to that stage
24:49Where he was ready to perform
24:50But he had a quality
24:52Yeah
24:52And once he'd seen that quality
24:54That ability to be both a bit tragic and funny
25:00Then Attenborough stuck with him
25:02Despite the lack of financing as a result
25:04No, wait, wait, hold it
25:05I'll keep it going
25:06Maybe he's not so crazy after all
25:08Photographer
25:09Henry
25:10Chase him around the camera
25:14Okay, put him in line
25:15Big reaction
25:16Big reaction
25:17Who is this?
25:20Stay down, Henry
25:21Stay down
25:23Groove
25:23Look jealous
25:24Jealous
25:25You can do better than that, can't you?
25:27Right
25:27Yeah, Mabel
25:28Yeah, give the tramp the eye
25:29That's right
25:30Yeah, yeah, yeah
25:32Matron, you're real hoity-toity
25:33Who is this bomb?
25:35Good, very good
25:36Downey Jr. shows a really natural and instinctive ability to switch between Chaplin the performer
25:43Which was a very important thing when there was a real persona behind him in those early silent years
25:49And Chaplin the man, who was a very serious artist
25:53Who was someone who was naturally haunted by some of his past and childhood experiences
25:59And who put that into his work
26:01And who was a major perfectionist
26:03Who did things in the early wild days of Hollywood that were truly pioneering
26:08But spent much longer amounts of time than the quick sort of slapdash way that they made films back then
26:15Or was sort of in opposition with
26:17And so Downey Jr. encompasses both of those sides of Chaplin rather than just playing to a crowd who might
26:24only see the stereotype
26:25The choice of Robert Downey Jr. was quite controversial because he wasn't a big star
26:33He was recognized, but, you know, he'd never led a film
26:38The two films he'd done before Chaplin were Soapdish and Air America
26:43And he was a sort of second lead, or even third lead in that
26:46He was on his way up, but he was by no means a sort of marquee name
26:51Once you've seen Robert Downey Jr. play Chaplin
26:54It's quite obvious that nobody else could have played it like him
26:56He is absolutely perfect
26:59It's not that he was born to play the role, in spite of what he says
27:03It was that he worked so hard to get it right, and he did, he took all the right choices
27:10He got the voice right for a start off
27:12His English accent is absolutely impeccable
27:15But he got the physical comedy, the timing
27:18He could do the man with the Chaplin mask, the little tramp mask perfectly
27:23And when he took the mask off, he could do Chaplin the man wonderfully
27:27You could see the transition, you could see the melancholy in his eyes
27:31And the sort of way that he needed to sort of keep this creature that he had created going
27:39The other crucial element is this isn't just the tramp he's performing as
27:43It isn't just him repeating Charlie Chaplin's films
27:45He's playing the teenager, he's playing the old man
27:48He's playing the man off camera, the man in Hollywood
27:52You know, this isn't simply a version of the tramp
27:56It is an entire life
27:57Yes, and it is very hard for an actor to manage to do that
28:02I mean, at that point, Robert Downey Jr. was not tested in that way
28:05He'd been in Brat Pack films, he'd been in smaller roles
28:10He'd never led a film
28:11And he wasn't necessarily known as an actor-actor
28:14He was, you know, quite good looking
28:17He was in popcorn movies
28:21So Attenborough saw something in him which made him understand that he would commit to this performance
28:26And that he would work hard every step of the way to try and inhabit this man
28:31He was also a huge fan
28:33I mean, actually, he was a fan of Chaplin
28:35By the time he'd finished all his training, he was probably about as knowledgeable about Chaplin as Attenborough
28:40And they did used to argue a bit about details of
28:43Well, this would happen first, Richard
28:45And Hugo Poppet, this is not a documentary, we're making a film
28:48Yeah
28:48Making my film
28:50So that's the other thing, is that he was a huge fan
28:53Tell me a little bit about your opinion of the performance
28:54Because it is the movie
28:56You know, we talk about Chaplin, the biopic
28:58It's really about Robert Downey Jr.
29:00He's in every scene of the film, virtually
29:03And, as we say, just did all these different versions of him
29:06And all these different textures
29:07What do you make of that performance?
29:10If Robert Downey Jr. can't convince us that he is the greatest physical comedian of the 20th century
29:18Then we are not going to buy this film
29:21It's someone doing a really poor quality Charlie Chaplin impersonation
29:25And there's plenty of people who do impersonations of characters
29:28And we just don't really want to pay to go to the cinema to see them
29:31He was so devoted to getting this right
29:35He found a guy who used to work on The Benny Hill Show
29:38Who had worked with, a guy who'd worked with Fred Conner
29:42And he then trained with that man
29:44He had these huge books
29:46That all the vaudeville and musical stars
29:49Used to work for
29:49These enormous choreographed books
29:51He had two body movement coaches
29:55He really, really put himself through the hoops in order to get everything right
30:29Chaplin is almost by definition a one-man show
30:30Out of an unseemly parade of wives and lovers
30:33Diane Lane shines as the sassy, exasperated Paulette Goddard
30:40So in order to understand Chaplin and the sort of microcosm of early Hollywood
30:44You do have to understand who all the major players are within that world
30:47Especially because Chaplin, as a newcomer in the beginning part of the film
30:51Is himself kind of ingenue
30:53And so two of those key figures are Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks
30:58Who were sort of the first celebrity couple of Hollywood
31:01And great friends and creative partners to Chaplin
31:04And they would go on to form famous players
31:07Which would become United Artists
31:09So the first sort of independent production companies and studios
31:12For and led by artistic vision and by the actor
31:16So that's one set of relationships that Chaplin has
31:20Another more adversarial one is one with J. Edgar Hoover
31:23Who basically begins a vendetta against Chaplin
31:27Which will end with Chaplin in exile
31:31Leaving Hollywood and not being welcomed back
31:34Into America having his visa revoked
31:36So these are the key relationships that the film shows at the start
31:40Which will go on to affect the trajectory of his life and career
31:43There are an awful lot of characters of course in the film around Chaplin
31:47Who are, you know, are or were very well known
31:50And they all get very distinctive portrayals by the actors
31:54I'm particularly fond of Paul Rees' portrayal of Sid Chaplin
31:59Dan Aykroyd as Max Sennett
32:02Who is wonderfully funny at the same time
32:05Sort of immensely sort of irascible
32:07Diane Lane as Paulette Goddard
32:11And Kevin Kline is a fantastic Douglas Fairbanks
32:15And who has to age
32:16And so you see him sort of go into a sort of decline
32:20You have to be good really in those roles
32:24Because you're playing with Robert Downey Jr.
32:26Who's spent a year getting this part right
32:28If you don't turn up with the same level of commitment
32:31It's going to look weak
32:32And they really do
32:33I mean, I think that Max Sennett is superb
32:37There's a description in Chapman's autobiography
32:41About what it was that made Max Sennett a great director
32:44And it was that he was always laughing
32:46Whenever he was directing you
32:47If it was funny, he laughed
32:50And that's what you're working towards
32:51Was getting Max Sennett to laugh while you were filming
32:53And that's what Aykroyd's doing
32:56He's watching the performance
32:58And once Max Sennett starts to laugh
33:01Then it happens
33:02So that's, you know, it's a nice touch
33:05Poignantly, Attenborough asked Geraldine Chaplin
33:08To play Chaplin's mother, her grandmother
33:11Hannah Chaplin's rapid decline into insanity
33:14With her son committing her to a London asylum
33:18Haunted Chaplin his entire life
33:20Just as he was haunted by 16-year-old Hattie Kelly
33:24The girl he left behind to seek his fortune in America
33:27Casting Geraldine Chaplin in a very important role in the film
33:32As her own grandmother
33:33Chaplin's mother
33:35Is a masterstroke by Attenborough
33:38Because she gets to bring all of her inherent family knowledge
33:41To that role
33:42And Chaplin's mother was a very key figure
33:45In his life and his work
33:47She herself was an artist
33:49And an actress for the screen
33:51She had great artistic ambition and passion
33:54But she struggled with her mental health
33:56His own heartbreak is that
33:58He can't get his mother back from insanity
34:02And he can't ever get Hattie back
34:03Yes, and I mean there's also
34:05He doesn't overly stress this
34:08But there's also his mother's psychosis
34:11Involves an obsessive-compulsive aspect
34:14Which she's always grinding things up in her hands
34:16And you get the sense that he sees
34:20Chaplin's obsession with just a few notes on the piano
34:23As he's trying to compose the score for a film
34:26It's not madness in the same way
34:28He's functioning
34:29But it is obsessive
34:31Because it's
34:32The book editor asked the question of him in the film
34:34Is that
34:35Did you ever fear going mad yourself?
34:37Your grandmother had been mad
34:38Your mother went mad
34:39And that felt like a very powerful thing to ask him
34:42Yes, and Chaplin dodges the question
34:44But it is a film that studies a kind of madness
34:48Isn't it?
34:49The obsessive nature
34:50The creative madness of what he brought
34:53That you wonder
34:55Chaplin became
34:57Very quickly
34:58Very famous
34:59In fact he became
35:01One of the most famous people in the world
35:03And that of course brings with it
35:07A sort of forensic sort of spotlight
35:10And because of the nature of what he was doing
35:14Which was he created a character
35:18In the clown
35:19In the little tramp
35:20That spoke to millions of Americans
35:23Who had suffered under the Great Depression
35:26And they could identify with someone
35:28Who had nothing
35:30And yet had the sort of
35:32Still had that sort of spirit
35:34To, you know, kick authority in the pants
35:38In spite of the fact that he had never
35:40You know, absolutely nothing at all
35:42And that appealed to them a lot
35:45It was almost
35:46It was almost anarchic
35:48The script by Brian Forbes
35:51William Boyd
35:52And William Goldman
35:53Condenses a mini-series
35:54Into a feature film
35:56This is the life
35:57Beginning with a hardscrabble
35:59East End childhood
36:00Then the rise in Music Hall
36:03The coming to America
36:04The movies
36:05The tramp
36:06To being the most famous man in the world
36:09As framed by an ageing chaplin
36:12Exiled in Switzerland
36:14Discussing his autobiography
36:16With Anthony Hopkins' book editor
36:17Skeptical
36:18About what he is leaving out
36:23I'm amongst
36:24My own fellow artists
36:26Here they are
36:27And after all
36:29The vulnerable profession
36:32Was a great
36:33And honourable one
36:35It was the
36:37Backbone
36:38The sort of
36:40Oh, the joy
36:42The express joy
36:44Of good old England
36:46And I come back
36:48And of course
36:48That's gone
36:49Life goes on
36:51There's nothing standing about life
36:59Alongside Chaplin's journey
37:01From stage to screen
37:02Is a portrayal
37:03Of the birth of cinema
37:04After the dingy
37:05Clattered Victorian streets
37:07Of London
37:07Early Hollywood
37:08Is rendered
37:09With a widescreen poetry
37:11An almost rural industry
37:13Basking in that glorious
37:15Californian light
37:16This is still
37:17Pioneer country
37:18Where Max Sennett
37:20Was making two pictures a week
37:21And where a tramp
37:23Could make a million
37:25Well he is
37:26It's the tramp
37:27Isn't it?
37:27Yeah
37:27He is the tramp
37:28Yeah
37:28He carries the tramp
37:29With him everywhere
37:30And the tramp has no home
37:31And he's
37:31I mean
37:32This line that he
37:34Says
37:35The critical line is
37:36If you want to understand me
37:37Watch the movies
37:38If you think about the tramp
37:39The tramp has many qualities
37:41Which Chaplin had
37:42He's enormously sentimental
37:44He's enormously kind
37:45He falls in and out of love
37:47A lot
37:47He is
37:49When he suddenly begins
37:50Each film broke
37:51But he's incredibly cruel as well
37:53So he will kick anyone
37:55If he wants to
37:57If he needs to
37:58I mean
37:58There's almost no
38:00Person who's safe from him
38:01So there is something
38:03About understanding the tramp
38:04That is really about
38:05Understanding Chaplin
38:06Is that this
38:06This switch between
38:09Lovely sentimental man
38:11Caring for the small child
38:12And the guy who will
38:14Give you a kicking
38:15If you don't
38:16If you get in his way
38:17And so there's
38:18He really is saying
38:19The truth
38:20This man is me
38:21I am him
38:21And understanding that
38:24All of the qualities
38:25Of that
38:25That rootlessness
38:26That inability to be anywhere
38:29Comfortably
38:31Caught up in things
38:32To your own detriment
38:33That's how he felt
38:34So there's a
38:35Narrative device
38:36In Chaplin
38:37Which is entirely
38:38The invention
38:39Of Attenborough
38:40And his screenwriters
38:40Which is this idea
38:41Of Chaplin
38:42Who in real life
38:43Had been living
38:43In Switzerland
38:44Sort of in exile
38:45From America
38:46In his later life
38:47Working on writing
38:48An autobiography
38:49He's having conversations
38:50With an imagined book editor
38:51Played by Anthony Hopkins
38:53And I think this is a way
38:55Of Attenborough
38:55Addressing the fact
38:57That the book
38:57Was criticised
38:58For Chaplin
38:59Having certain omissions
39:00Around some of the more
39:02Tawdry or controversial
39:03Aspects of his life story
39:05And so it's a way
39:07To lightly challenge
39:08Chaplin
39:08In terms of his
39:09Egotism
39:10In terms of
39:11His own narrative
39:12Of the story
39:13Of his own life
39:13That he's putting
39:14In the book
39:15And so Attenborough
39:16Is trying to address
39:17Some critiques
39:18Of Chaplin's
39:19Fame
39:19And personality
39:21There
39:21This biopic of Chaplin
39:23Is surprisingly
39:24Unsentimental
39:25He is drawn
39:26As a flawed man
39:27A neglectful husband
39:28And cruel perfectionist
39:30And often
39:30Willfully naive
39:32Memories of that
39:34Poverty stricken childhood
39:35Lead him to risky
39:36Political views
39:37Chaplin understood
39:39That this art
39:40Could speak to millions
39:41Tellingly
39:42To his first encounter
39:44With a kinetoscope
39:45And walking
39:46Onto his own
39:47Sound stage
39:48At our accompany
39:49Need
39:49By composer
39:50John Barry's
39:51Love theme
40:13Nothing quite like it
40:17The film is also
40:18The story
40:18Of how Chaplin
40:19Created Chaplinesque
40:21From the
40:22Vaudeville routines
40:23Born out of desperation
40:24To his unbending devotion
40:26To the art of comedy
40:27We see the
40:29Spontaneity
40:30Behind scenes
40:31Or the balletic
40:32Choreography
40:33Of silent film
40:34And the grind
40:35Of editing
40:36That could go on
40:37For months
40:37Attenborough
40:38Even dares to
40:39Switch the film
40:40Into slapstick mode
40:41As Chaplin and his team
40:43Escape across the state line
40:44With reels of the kid
40:46To avoid divorce lawyers
40:47One of the good things
40:49About this film
40:50And particularly
40:51The character of Chaplin
40:53Is that it shows
40:54How difficult
40:57The creative process is
40:59And how
41:00You know
41:00The idea that
41:01It's
41:02Creation is
41:031% inspiration
41:0499% perspiration
41:06Chaplin was
41:09Like Stanley Kubik
41:10He was a perfectionist
41:11And he would do
41:12Many, many, many, many
41:14Takes
41:15To get it right
41:16He would
41:16He would want
41:17Absolute perfection
41:19He not only
41:20Drove his actors
41:21Into making sure
41:22You know
41:23Going through
41:23Several takes
41:24But he would
41:25Drive himself
41:26And it was
41:27That driven quality
41:30That
41:31You know
41:32Was
41:32In fact
41:33As one of
41:34One of his
41:34Wives says
41:35You know
41:36He's still
41:36Pouring over
41:37A screenplay
41:38Or still
41:39Pouring over
41:39Something
41:39That isn't quite right
41:40And right into
41:42The middle of the night
41:42In the early hours
41:43In the morning
41:43He said
41:43Is this
41:44Is this why
41:45You know
41:46Is this what
41:46Caused your last divorce
41:48He said
41:49Probably
41:49Because filmmaking
41:51And getting it right
41:52Was above all
41:54It was paramount
41:54About relationships
41:56Everything
41:58That shows
41:59A man who is
42:00Clearly driven
42:01By an ambition
42:03And an aspiration
42:04It also shows
42:05As someone
42:06Who cares
42:07More about
42:08What he's
42:09Producing
42:10Than
42:11What he
42:12And what he
42:13Leaves
42:14In other words
42:15After his death
42:15Than his
42:17Relationships
42:18With anybody
42:19The film
42:20The film didn't do
42:20Well on release
42:21It was as if
42:22Critics
42:22Audiences
42:23And Hollywood
42:24Itself
42:25Felt that
42:26Chaplin was
42:26Untouchable
42:27And were blinded
42:28To the film's
42:28Qualities
42:29Though Downey Jr.'s
42:30Performance
42:31Gained a much
42:32Deserved Oscar
42:33Nomination
42:33It is only
42:34It is only
42:35Over the years
42:35That the film's
42:36Value has come
42:37To be recognised
42:38What Attenborough
42:39And Downey
42:40Truly evoke
42:41Is Chaplin's
42:41Humanity
42:42He was gifted
42:43In ways
42:44He couldn't
42:44Express in words
42:46Uneasy
42:47And often
42:47Tormented
42:48But deeply
42:49Empathetic
42:50This mix
42:51Is what gave
42:52Us
42:52The Kid
42:53The Gold Rush
42:54City Lights
42:55Modern Times
42:56And The Great Dictator
42:58As Chaplin says
42:59In the films
43:00If you want
43:01To understand
43:01Watch the movies
43:03One of the
43:04Big takeaways
43:05For me
43:06From watching
43:07Chaplin
43:07Is that
43:09Hollywood
43:09And often
43:11The
43:11In a larger sense
43:13The commercial
43:13Side of
43:14The artistic
43:16Punishes
43:17Those who
43:19Colour outside
43:20The lines
43:21Too much
43:21And although
43:23Eventually
43:23We get great
43:24Catharsis for
43:25Chaplin being
43:26Invited back
43:26To America
43:28In the welcoming
43:28Arms of a
43:291972 Lifetime
43:31Achievement Award
43:32At the Oscars
43:32And it's a very
43:33Emotional moment
43:34For him
43:35It is
43:36Profoundly
43:37Unfair
43:38Really
43:38What happened
43:38To him
43:39And the way
43:39A target
43:39Was put on
43:40His back
43:40For his
43:40Politics
43:42And it
43:42Was because
43:43He wasn't
43:44A people
43:44Pleaser
43:45It was
43:45Because he
43:46Didn't
43:46Quite
43:47Colour
43:47Within
43:47The lines
43:48And Hollywood
43:50Punishes its
43:51Geniuses
43:51Sometimes
43:51And so
43:53That's a bitter
43:53Pill to swallow
43:54And I think
43:54Attenborough
43:55Really understood
43:55The complexity
43:56Of that
43:58And also
43:59The immortality
44:00Of Chaplin's
44:01Art
44:01Chaplin gives
44:02An excellent
44:03Portrait
44:04Of an
44:05Instinctive
44:05Artist
44:06Who created
44:07An incredible
44:08Character
44:09Universally
44:10Recognized
44:11And then
44:11Also takes
44:12Off that
44:13Mask
44:13And shows
44:14The man
44:14Beneath
44:15It
44:15And the
44:15Psychological
44:16Complexity
44:17That actually
44:18Made him
44:19What he
44:20Was
44:20I think
44:21It's one
44:22Of the
44:23Few
44:24Really good
44:25Biopics
44:25Of somebody
44:27Who
44:27Was
44:28Went
44:29From being
44:30A non-entity
44:32To
44:32Universal
44:33Icon
44:34It's vastly
44:35Important isn't
44:35It because
44:36This is a
44:36Lasting testament
44:38To Chaplin
44:39We've read
44:39The books
44:40We've seen
44:40The films
44:41But so
44:41Many
44:42Haven't
44:42And I
44:43Think this
44:44Is an
44:44Extraordinary
44:44Film
44:45In just
44:46Honouring
44:46That legacy
44:47Yeah this
44:48Is the
44:48This is going
44:49To be the
44:50Urtext
44:50About Chaplin
44:51And his
44:51Life
44:51For the
44:53Majority
44:53Of people
44:54Who encounter
44:54Him and his
44:55Life
44:55I mean it's
44:56Beautifully
44:58Respectfully
44:58Lovingly
44:59Delivered
45:00But it's
45:00More than
45:01That
45:01It has
45:02A heart
45:03And a soul
45:04To it
45:04That is
45:05Part and
45:05Parcel of
45:06The
45:07Chaplin
45:07Films
45:08You can
45:08Take enormous
45:09Pain and
45:10Suffering
45:10And you
45:11Can make
45:12Millions and
45:13Millions of
45:13People really
45:14Happy
45:15That's
45:16That's the
45:16Paradox
45:17This is a
45:18Valuable
45:19Portrait of a
45:20Man an
45:20Artist and
45:22America
45:22His great
45:23Backdrop
45:24Attenborough
45:25Goes in
45:25Search of
45:26The source
45:27Of greatness
45:27And returns
45:29With a
45:29Profound
45:30Ambiguity
45:30This film
45:32Is a
45:32Moving
45:33Testament
45:33To the
45:34Enigmatic
45:35Era defining
45:36Unforgettable
45:37Genius
45:37Of Charlie
45:38Chaplin
45:39Charlie Chaplin
45:44iot
45:46TÃsimo
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