Carmen Chaplin is bringing her grandfather’s story to the big screen. The actress and filmmaker will direct “Charlie Chaplin, A Man of the World,” a feature documentary delving into the iconic comedian’s Romani lineage. Variety broke the news.
“He was very conscious of his Romani heritage,” Carmen Chaplin told the source. “It was something that he was proud of but was very much overlooked.”
She is penning the project with Amaia Remírez (“Another Day of Life”). This is “the first time that the Chaplin family is involved at a deep creative and industrial level in a movie about Charles Chaplin,” the source reveals. Carmen’s sister, Dolores Chaplin, is among the producers.
“Determined to subvert audience expectations of a documentary on the silent film master,” the doc’s synopsis teases, “the storytellers envisage a dynamic fusion of animation, film excerpts, interviews with artists and Chaplin’s children, and cinema verité footage of Roma life today coming together to a soundtrack of new interpretations of Chaplin’s original compositions.”
Both of Charlie Chaplin’s parents were half-Romani. A letter he received late in life — one discovered in 2012 by his daughter Victoria Chaplin — claimed he was born in a caravan at Black Patch Park in Smethwick, Staffordshire.
Alongside Charlie Chaplin’s descendants, stars of Romani heritage and Romani culture experts including Toni Gatlif and Stochelo Rosenberg will participate in “A Man of the World.”
“Wandering in Bucharest years ago I became fascinated by the stray dogs and gypsy children. As they scavenged for food whilst hiding from the cops, the gypsy children struck me as being straight out of [1921 Charlie Chaplin film] ‘The Kid,’” Carmen Chaplin explained. “I recounted what I’d seen to the Romanian people closest to me. To my utter shock they condemned these children as criminals and low-lifes. This encounter with anti-gypsy stigma stayed with me: I saw that otherwise pleasant individuals could also view other people as worthless and in fact barely human.”
Known for portraying character “The Tramp,” Charlie Chaplin appeared in nearly 90 screen projects. A filmmaker, screenwriter, and composer, he won an Oscar for scoring “Limelight.” He also had a history of marrying women much younger than himself, some of whom were underage. He died in 1977 at the age of 88.
“A Man of the World” will mark Carmen Chaplin’s feature directorial debut. She previously wrote, helmed, and produced shorts “A Time for Everything,” “The Innovators,” and “Tryst in Paname.” Her acting credits include “The Serpent’s Kiss,” “Sabrina,” and “Snapshots.”
