Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Richard Schickel

Writer:

Richard Schickel (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

Narrated by Sydney Pollack, film critic Richard Schickel's dazzling two-hour plus documentary to one of the towering figures in film: Charles Chaplin...

Plot Keywords:

Charlie Chaplin | Character Name In Title

Cast

Charles Chaplin	...	Himself (archive footage)
Sydney Pollack	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Woody Allen	...	Himself
Richard Attenborough	...	Himself
Jeanine Basinger	...	Herself
Claire Bloom	...	Herself
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Herself
Michael Chaplin	...	Himself
Sydney Chaplin	...	Himself
Johnny Depp	...	Himself
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Himself
Milos Forman	...	Himself
Bill Irwin	...	Himself
Norman Lloyd	...	Himself
Marcel Marceau	...	Himself
David Raksin	...	Himself
David Robinson	...	Himself
Andrew Sarris	...	Himself
Martin Scorsese	...	Himself
Jeffrey Vance	...	Himself

Runtime:

132 min | Hong Kong:127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Sweden:Btl | Germany:6

Movie Connections:

Features Caught in a Park (1915)

Ordinary movie about an extraordinary man

Chaplin is a cultural icon. No question about that. So what do you do? Get some old footage, both from his movies and from other sources, combine that with footage of historians and modern celebrities talking about their impressions on the man. The concept is far from original. Basically it's the same as any number of documentaries.

The movie manages to include all the important work of Chaplin in it. However, there's no information that most people with any interest on the subject wouldn't know and how many people who are not interested on the subject would watch a movie like this?

Maybe I've just seen too many of these. Of course, I appreciate and respect the work of the man, but I just don't see the point of these little documentaries anymore. Using at least just a little bit of creativity would have been nice. If I was to do a movie about an icon I love, I would at least try to do him or her justice and set the movie apart from others. It's not all bad, just kind of mediocre.