He was a perfectionist (See City Lights scene). He was a perfect comedian; but he was not a perfect man. He had several flaws. Like all the rest of us. I was ashamed of how the US treated him in the early 1950s during the moronic commie scare period. The idiotic questions of an obviously unrefined and uneducated press corps, or what passed for a press corps in 1947 after the completion of Monsieur Verdoux, were embarrassing to the profession.
Pearl Mackie gives us a balanced oral history of Chaplin's origins, trip to the US, wild success in Hollywood and New York, gradual demise with the arrival of sound pictures, and then retreat from the hate-mongers that dominated both law enforcement and politics during the communist witch hunts of the early 50s. At different times, Chaplin is portrayed as a demigod, a hero, a terrible husband, an overt socialist, a fantastic success, then a fantastic failure in later life. What was really the real Chaplin? Even with this documentary, only his wife Oona, and his children knew the real Chaplin; and even that premise might be a bit suspect. No, although this film is a success, and beautifully constructed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, I don't think anyone will ever quite know for sure what type of person Charlie Chaplin was in real life. But he was damn funny on screen.
Pearl Mackie gives us a balanced oral history of Chaplin's origins, trip to the US, wild success in Hollywood and New York, gradual demise with the arrival of sound pictures, and then retreat from the hate-mongers that dominated both law enforcement and politics during the communist witch hunts of the early 50s. At different times, Chaplin is portrayed as a demigod, a hero, a terrible husband, an overt socialist, a fantastic success, then a fantastic failure in later life. What was really the real Chaplin? Even with this documentary, only his wife Oona, and his children knew the real Chaplin; and even that premise might be a bit suspect. No, although this film is a success, and beautifully constructed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, I don't think anyone will ever quite know for sure what type of person Charlie Chaplin was in real life. But he was damn funny on screen.