PROGETTO CHAPLIN – KEYSTONE I

Henry Lehrman: Kid Auto Races at Venice (US 1914). Chaplin Opus 2. Charles Chaplin for the first time as the Tramp on screen.

Five restored Chaplin films. ♪ Neil Brand. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The photochemical look of the BFI/NFTVA restorations is much more pleasant than the digital look of some other Keystone restorations. The films are usually storywise very crude but visually charming if seen in close-to-the-original prints. It's very gratifying to see new, better prints of films previously known in a highly battered state.

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MERCOLEDI 6 LUGLIO 2005

16.00 Progetto Chaplin – Keystone

KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE (USA/1914) R.: Henry Lehrman. Int.: Charles Chaplin. D.: 7’. Did. inglesi

MABEL’S AT THE WHEEL (USA/1914) R.: Mabel Normand e Mack Sennett. Int.: Charles Chaplin. D.: 21’. Did. inglesi

A FILM JOHNNIE (USA/1914) R.: George Nichols. Int. Charles Chaplin. D.: 15’

THE PROPERTY MAN (USA/1914) R.: Charles Chaplin. D.: 31’. Did. inglesi Restauro dei film Keystone a cura del National Film and Television Archive, Londra.

GENTLEMEN OF NERVE (USA/1914) R.: Charles Chaplin. Int. Charles Chaplin. D.: 17’. Did. inglesi.  Restauro di un film Keystone a cura della Library of Congress, Washington.

Accompagnamento al piano di Neil Brand 

KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE Usa, 1914 Regia: Henry Lehrman

■ T.it.: Charlot si distingue; Scen.: Henry Lehrman, Reed Heustis; F.: Enrique Juan Vallejo, Frank D. Williams; Int.: Charles Chaplin (il vagabondo), Henry Lehrman (regista), Frank D. Williams (operatore), Billy Jacobs, Thelma Salter, Charlotte Fitzpatrick, Gordon Griffith; Prod.: Keystone Film Company ■ 35 mm. L. 147 m. D.: 7’ a 16 f/s. Bn. Didascalie inglesi / English intertitles ■ Da: British Film Institute - National Film and Television Archive

The film is only about four minutes long, and it consists of nothing more that this single gimmick, repeated over and over. The “drunk” keeps hamming it up for the camera, growing ever more aggressive and determined to ignore the director. When the camera crew tries to photograph the end of the race, he comes running and skipping down the middle of the street, flapping his arms like a bird, tripping over the finish line; when stray kids wander between him and the camera, he shoves them in the face; when the director start knocking him out of the way, he dances around in little circles at the periphery of the shot and sticks out his tongue. Ultimately he “spoils” every scene in the newsreel. He is of course Charlie Chaplin, and the film is Kid Auto Races at Venice, a minor landmark in cinema history because it is the first film in which Chaplin appeared in the costume of the Tramp. James Naremore, Film Quarterly, Winter 1984-85

MABEL AT THE WHEEL Usa, 1914 Regia: Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett

■ T. it.: Mabel al volante; Scen.: Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett; F.: Frank D. Williams; Int.: Charles Chaplin (il cattivo), Mabel Normand (Mabel), Harry McCoy (pilota), Chester Conklin (padre di Mabel), Mack Sennett (cronista), Edgar Kennedy (spettatore), William Hauber (co-pilota di Mabel), Mack Swain, Alice Davenport (spettatori), William A. Seiter, Fred Mace, Joe Bordeaux; Prod.: Keystone Film Company ■ 35 mm. L.: 441 m. D.: 21’ a 18 f/s. Bn. Didascalie inglesi / English intertitles ■ Da: National Film and Television Archive – British Film Institute

If the character of the newborn Charlot-tramp was extremely violent it would not be incorrect to see an extension of this quality, a quality that many have criticised, in the character in Mabel at the Wheel. This bad guy role – a very particular kind of bad guy – stands on the edge of what has later come to be known as the Charlot cycle. But the cruelty, premeditated revenge and destructive hate of this film, written and directed by Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand, has little to do with the pantomime spirit and burlesque poetics that Chaplin experimented with in the comedies in which he gradually turned into the legendary tramp we all know and love.

Thierry Georges Mathieu, La naissance de Charlot. Keystone - 1914, n.6, Ars Regula, 2001

A FILM JOHNNIE Usa, 1914 Regia: George Nichols

■ T. it.: Charlot fa del cinema; Scen.: Craig Hutchinson; F.: Frank D. Williams; Int.: Chaplin (l’attrezzista), Virginia Kirtley (la ragazza della Keystone), Minta Durfee (l’attrice), Mack Sennett (il regista), Mabel Normand (Mabel), Ford Sterling (Ford), Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle; Prod.: Keystone ■ 35 mm. D.: 15’ a 18 f/s. Bn. Didascalie inglesi / English intertitles ■ Da: National Film and Television Archive – British Film Institute

A Film Johnnie was an elementary affair, shot around the studio but, like Chaplin’s later films, The Masquerader, His New Job and Behind the Screen, gives us evocative glimpses of life in the early Californian studios. Charlie goes to the cinema and falls for the star of the film. He then pursues her to the Keystone Studios, where he causes havoc among the productions. Fire breaks out and he is squirted by the fire brigade. In a crazy, funny little gag, he twists his ears and thereby gives the fireman a retaliatory squirt. David Robinson, Chaplin. His Life and Art, William Collins, 1985

THE PROPERTY MAN Usa, 1914 Regia: Charles Chaplin

■ T.it.: Dietro le quinte; F.: Frank D. Williams; M.: Charles Chaplin; Int.: Charles Chaplin (trovarobe), Phyllis Allen (Hamlena Fat), Alice Davenport (attrice), Charles Bennett (marito di Hamlena), Norma Nichols (artista del vaudeville), Joe Bordeaux (attore anziano), Harry McCoy (ubriaco), Lee Morris (spettatore), Jess Dandy (Garlico), Joseph Swickard (anziano aiutante di scena), Joe Bordeaux (attore anziano), Gene Marsh (assistente di Garlico), Vivian Edwards, Cecile Arnold (Goo Goo Sister), Mack Sennett, Frank Opperman, George ‘Slim’ Summerville (spettatori); Prod.: Keystone Film Company ■ 35 mm. D.: 27’ a 18 f/s. Bn. Didascalie inglesi / English intertitles ■ Da: National Film and Television Archive – British Film Institute

The Charlot of The Property Man is no longer the character moulded by Sennett during Chaplin’s first months at the Keystone studios. A hewfound inspiration and a different maturity come to the fore hinting at the more accomplished future films. This “Charlot” has of course maintained the characteristics of troublemaker who loves to flirt and, in a way, his status as a free man. His mocking spirit and vindictive nature soon appear behind the scenes as well as on stage, he answers the blows by raising the stakes and creates a terrible commotion in the theatre, even amongst the audience, completing his adventures with a collective watering worthy of Sennett’s burlesque school. Thierry Georges Mathieu, La naissance de Charlot. Keystone - 1914, n.11, Ars Regula, 2001

GENTLEMEN OF NERVE Usa, 1914 Regia: Charles Chaplin

■ T.it.: Charlot e Mabel alle corse; Scen.: Charles Chaplin; F.: Frank D. Williams; Int.: Charles Chaplin (il «portoghese»), Mack Swain (Ambrose), Mabel Normand (Mabel), Chester Conklin (Walrus), Phyllis Allen (sua moglie), Glen Cavender (Poliziotto), Alice Davenport (cameriera), Slim Summerville, Cecile Arnold, Frank Hayes, Charles Parrott [Charley Chase], Gene Marsh, Harry McCoy, Vivian Edwards, Fred Fishback, Tammany Young, Joe Bordeaux, Billy Gilbert, Bill Hauber (spettatori), Dixie Chene; Prod.: Keystone Film Company ■ 35 mm. L.: 314 m. D.: 17’ a 16 f/s. Didascalie inglesi / English intertitles ■ Da: Library of Congress

Gentleman of Nerve is, admittedly, one of Chaplin’s most violent Keystones (spewing, stomping, biting, and burning as well as the usual kicks and punches) and one of his least original (…). However, the film does have one very funny slapstick sequence (Mack in the fence hole) using fluent cross-cutting, and several new gags that are memorable: i.e., Charlie trying to get into the racetrack by walking backward, his theft of soda pop, and his casual “preparation” to help Mabel in distress. Harry M. Geduld, Chapliniana, Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1987