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 You can see one of the women -- among four Chaplin married in
the course of his 88 years -- in a glistening, outsized
black-and-white picture of Paulette Goddard with a stolen bunch
of bananas from "Modern Times" in "The Chaplin Archives", a
hefty book whose author calls it a "Blu-ray" high-definition
tribute to the legendary comic actor and filmmaker.
Produced by the specialist German-based publisher Taschen Books,
this 560-page tome weighing 7 kg (15 lb) and roughly the
dimensions of a small television set, can hardly be read in bed
and overwhelms many cocktail tables.
But it fulfils what English author Paul Duncan says was his goal
of recreating Chaplin's career chronologically -- as he lived it
-- to mark, roughly, the centenary of the penniless English
vaudevillian's start in the movies, when he jumped ship from a
theater company touring the United States.
Reproduced on page 47 is Chaplin's first movie contract, with
Keystone, dated Sept. 25, 1913, for what to Chaplin was the
then-princely sum of $150 a week.
The rest, as anyone who has an eye for great movie-making and
funny films will know, is history. His oeuvre included silent
film slapstick classics like "City Lights" and "Modern Times"
before he embraced sound with political satire like "The Great
Dictator" and black comedy including "Monsieur Verdun".
"What I wanted to do was make it an oral history, so it's
actually Chaplin and his collaborators talking as you read the
book, you're reading about the events of his life and how he
made his films," Duncan told Reuters in an interview.
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With access granted to the Chaplin family archives, and help from
the Cineteca di Bologna with restored films, Duncan said that
although there have been countless books on Chaplin over the years,
this one is different.
"He's always been so private and he kept things secret and I wanted
to tell that story, the story of how he made his movies," Duncan
said.
"Between the documents and the oral history and the things that I
found that the actual people who were there when the films were made
said, they're telling the story so there's never a quote from
somebody who wasn't there."
There is enduring interest in Chaplin, who died in 1977 and made his
last film, "A Countess from Hong Kong" starring Sophia Loren and
Marlon Brando, in 1967.
For the British market, the specialist film company Curzon
Artificial Eye is releasing a new, boxed set of 10 of Chaplin's
films, plus extra features and shorts, in December.
"I don't think his appeal will ever fade," Mark Towers, the product
manager, said in an emailed response to questions.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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