Anime DVDs & comic books

Product Description

Charlie Chaplin was the first international cinema star and one of the greatest comic geniuses the world has known. Drawing on research and interviews with those who knew Chaplin, Jeffrey Vance presents an illustrated account which captures Chaplin's fascinating life as well as his creative process. Vance describes in detail the atmosphere on Chaplin's film sets and his relationships with the cast and crew, his first attempts at comedy sequences that later became famous, and the main themes and ideas that persist through the major Chaplin films. Chaplin's rags-to-riches life story is also represented in these pages, every stage of which is documented in photographs: his poverty-stricken childhood in late Victorian London, his unparalleled success in Hollywood, his numerous romances and four marriages, his political persecution during the anti-communist witch-hunts, and his happy years of quiet exile in Switzerland.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #695531 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 5.11 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Using his complete access to the Chaplin Archives, film historian Vance creates a compelling portrait of the cinema's first international star: a moviemaker who blended comedy and pathos and whose most complex character was his own off-screen self. Vance, who helped Charlie Chaplin's ex-wife Lita Grey pen her memoirs and has co-authored biographies of silent-film comedy greats Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, discerningly examines both Chaplin's groundbreaking work and the controversial man behind it. More of an encyclopedia than a biography-information from Chaplin's memoirs is frequently quoted-Vance's book shows admiration and sympathy for its subject, plus an extensive understanding of Chaplin's films, which are evaluated at length. But the most impressive and incisive material here are the photos, some of which have never been published before. Family portraits, film-set snapshots and frame enlargements from movies reveal a somber, often fragile-looking young man whose whole personality, not just his physical appearance, is altered when he's playing a role. As Chaplin's career soared in the early 20th century-along with his reputation as a perfectionist and his predilection for teenage girls-the photos capture his enlivening confidence. Later images reveal a man pained by legal battles and, eventually, a family patriarch at peace after marrying Eugene O'Neill's daughter, Oona. Comprehensive captions provide enough details to stand alone from the rest of the text. Released on the heels of a documentary about Chaplin and restored DVDs of his classic films, this book makes a sound introduction to, and study of, the great filmmaker's work. 500 b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Vance's Buster Keaton Remembered (2001) and Harold Lloyd [BKL My 15 02] are the finest photographic books ever published on their subjects, so it is not altogether surprising that his treatment of the greatest silent film comedian is a stunner. Still, that it contains so many superbly reproduced images from Chaplin's earliest years as an English touring-company member; so many documentary photos of Chaplin at work, at play, and in the public eye; and such wonderful rediscoveries as the great photojournalist W. Eugene Smith's expressionistic shots of Chaplin directing and acting in his greatest sound film, Limelight, as well as the expected wealth of movie production and publicity stills, is vastly impressive. Moreover, Vance writes considerably more about Chaplin than he did about Keaton and Lloyd combined. He discusses every film, including early shorts that are lost, and he illuminates Chaplin's working methods. If his prose remains workaday, it is always clear, even when he makes peculiar word choices and gets inconsequential facts wrong. Nevertheless, an absolutely essential book on this great filmmaker. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"...a deft amalgam of biography, film history, and criticism...a ravishing tribute to one of the cinema's true pioneers." -- Film Review, December 1, 2003

"...a lavishly appointed book, and an excellent photo-biography." -- The Independent, December 1, 2003

"...a significant addition to our knowledge of Chaplin...a revealing album." -- Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2003

"...ravishing...we are lead most eloquently through the amazing story...the photographs are beautiful and informative, and the text scrupulously researched." -- Claire Bloom

"...straightforward, fair, rich in anecdote and detail...the definitive pictorial record of the artist's life and work." -- The Australian, December 1, 2003

"...this gorgeous, unwieldy book succeeds in being several books...his [Vance's] judicious text is as fascinating as the photographs." -- New York Times, November 1, 2003