It is not yet another documentary on Charlot that france.tv offers us in replay until February 13 but a formidable story on the madly free genius of Charlie Chaplin, well beyond his emblematic character. Two and a half hours long, rich in film extracts and exceptional archival documents, this film by Yves Jeuland paints a sensitive and precise portrait of the man, the artist and his work, while renewing the look on this sacred monster of cinema.
What were the roots of his humanist commitments which always placed him on the side of the exploited? How did he invent the universally adored character of Charlot, this magnificent tramp? What did his films say about their time and the social and political convictions of their author? How did he make the first major anti-Nazi film? And why did he have to go into exile in Europe for the last 25 years of his life? These are just some of the many questions addressed in this exceptional documentary.
It must be said that Charlie Chaplin is a golden subject. Because the most popular artist of the 20th century had a fascinating trajectory. Born in the slums of London in 1889, in a universe of Charles Dickensian misery, placed in a hospice and separated from his brother and his adored but alienated mother at the age of 6, he went from the greatest destitution to the greatest fortune in less than a quarter of a century. When he was still a young actor in a pantomime troupe on tour in the United States, a fortune teller predicted phenomenal success and a colossal fortune for him. She was telling the truth. He was not 25 when he became the most famous man in the world. And this thanks to his Charlot character, “a poet, a solitary dreamer, both wanderer and gentleman“, he summed up aptly.
If the documentary takes the side of a chronological story, there is nothing ordinary about it. It is first of all the very first “portrait all in archives” by Chaplin, a challenge and painstaking work that required three years of work from the documentary filmmaker Aude Vassallo. He harpoons us from the first minutes and carries us away with a fluid editing where we never take our eyes off Charlie Chaplin.
No specialist, collaborator or witness is invited to the screen. Instead, a good place is given to film extracts, whether it’s anthology scenes from his greatest masterpieces carefully chosen or unpublished, rare and surprising sequences. These fine quality images, many of which have been restored in recent years, allow us to appreciate all the genius and expressive grace of Chaplin, as much actor as dancer, mime and imitator (in addition to being director, producer and composer of film music).
Told in voice-over by Mathieu Amalric in his beautiful deep voice, the remarkable commentary sheds light on the facts by offering a detailed analysis, which is complemented by a few enlightening and often moving passages from Chaplin’s memoirs.
There is in particular this key moment when Charlie invents Charlot. The metamorphosis takes place under the eyes of Mack Sennett, the boss of the Keystone film company specializing in burlesque comedies, who has just hired him at the age of 24. “try to be funny“, he throws at her, sending her to make-up. Chaplin returns in Charlot. Pants too wide and tight jacket. Hat too small and shoes too big.I wanted everything to be in contradiction“, explained Charlie Chaplin in his memoirs. “I had no idea what character I was going to play. But the moment I got dressed and made up, it sparked all kinds of crazy ideas in me. (…) The gags crowded in my head.“
Charlie Chaplin was a revolution in motion, a committed clown who used comedy to convey his humanist ideals and make fun of the powerful – which earned him several violent smear campaigns. He spoke of the misery in The Kidinspired by his childhood, he denounced the butchery of the First World War in Charlot soldier (1918), he criticized capitalism and the infernal cadences of Fordism in Modern timeshe showed the other side of the American dream in The Emigranthe parodied Hitler in The dictatorthe first anti-Nazi film in history, released in 1940.
The director Yves Jeuland says he wanted with Charlie Chaplin, the genius of freedom“weaving together three narrative threads: the story of a man, the history of cinema and History in general“. With this documentary, which was part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2020, he signs a reference documentary on Chaplin, of which he draws a hyper precise and lively portrait. That of a perfectionist, a workaholic multi -talented and a silent film star who survived the birth of talkies.That of a genius attentive to his time who never forgot where he came from and never compromised with freedom.
Charlie Chaplin, the genius of freedomDocumentary (2020 – unreleased – 2h25) Directed by Yves Jeuland and written by François Aymé and Yves Jeuland.
To see on France.tv until February 13, 2022.