Limelight)

Starring:Chaplin Collection
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
Charles Spencer Chaplin, the London ragamuffin who became the most popular man of his era, gets his proper due with this deluxe package of four classics. Each two-disc set begins with an excellent new digital transfer of the picture and remastered sound. The Gold Rush, Chaplin's 1925 masterpiece, puts the Little Tramp into the snowy Yukon; it includes such celebrated sequences as the "Dance of the Rolls" and Chaplin's uncanny metamorphosis into a large chicken. Both the original silent version and Chaplin's re-edited 1942 release (for which he added his own musical score and narration) are included. A documentary on "Chaplin Today" looks at the film through the eyes of Burkina Faso director Idrissa Ouedraogo. Modern Times (1936) is Chaplin's peerless take on the machine age; his ballet on the assembly line remains one of the great images of modern man driven mad by mechanization. The DVD extras include a couple of (somewhat extraneous) vintage promotional films about the wonderful world of mass production, the famous Chaplin composition "Smile" performed by Liberace (huh?), and penetrating comments on the film by the Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.

The Great Dictator is Chaplin's comic undressing of Hitler, boldly released in 1940. An absorbing documentary, "The Tramp and the Dictator," details production of the film, and color footage shot on the set provides fascinating behind-the-scenes material. Limelight (1952), in which he plays a fading vaudevillian, is Chaplin's magnificent elegy on his own career. Extras include a deleted scene, the entire Oscar-winning score, and Bernardo Bertolucci on the film's emotional impact: "I don't cry often, but here my tears flow." Each film has a loving introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson--but newcomers to Chaplin should watch the movies first, as the extras give away endings and the best jokes. --Robert Horton

The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 1 (Modern Times / The Great Dictator / The Gold Rush / Limelight)
Average customer rating:

great films and a great collection

The chaplin masterpiece collection

You can't do the impossible...

Satisfied

I became a Chaplin Lover

The Chaplin Collection, Vol. 1 (Modern Times / The Great Dictator / The Gold Rush / Limelight)
Starring: Chaplin Collection
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video
Comedy | Silent Films | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video
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Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video
( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
Classics | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
Comedy | Warner Home Video | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
Drama | Warner Home Video | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
All Titles | Warner Home Video | Studio Specials | Stores | DVD | Video
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Chaplin Mutual Comedies - Restored Edition

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ASIN: B000096IBS
Release Date: 2003-07-01

Amazon.com essential video

Charles Spencer Chaplin, the London ragamuffin who became the most popular man of his era, gets his proper due with this deluxe package of four classics. Each two-disc set begins with an excellent new digital transfer of the picture and remastered sound. The Gold Rush, Chaplin's 1925 masterpiece, puts the Little Tramp into the snowy Yukon; it includes such celebrated sequences as the "Dance of the Rolls" and Chaplin's uncanny metamorphosis into a large chicken. Both the original silent version and Chaplin's re-edited 1942 release (for which he added his own musical score and narration) are included. A documentary on "Chaplin Today" looks at the film through the eyes of Burkina Faso director Idrissa Ouedraogo. Modern Times (1936) is Chaplin's peerless take on the machine age; his ballet on the assembly line remains one of the great images of modern man driven mad by mechanization. The DVD extras include a couple of (somewhat extraneous) vintage promotional films about the wonderful world of mass production, the famous Chaplin composition "Smile" performed by Liberace (huh?), and penetrating comments on the film by the Belgian filmmakers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne.

The Great Dictator is Chaplin's comic undressing of Hitler, boldly released in 1940. An absorbing documentary, "The Tramp and the Dictator," details production of the film, and color footage shot on the set provides fascinating behind-the-scenes material. Limelight (1952), in which he plays a fading vaudevillian, is Chaplin's magnificent elegy on his own career. Extras include a deleted scene, the entire Oscar-winning score, and Bernardo Bertolucci on the film's emotional impact: "I don't cry often, but here my tears flow." Each film has a loving introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson--but newcomers to Chaplin should watch the movies first, as the extras give away endings and the best jokes. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

great films and a great collection.......2006-12-30

What can i say, If you are a fan of Chaplin, then you cannot go without this collection. for every film you get a whole second DVD with extras. Every film is remastered, and although some are in black and white, still look amazing.

The chaplin masterpiece collection.......2006-12-15

In my view every chaplin movie is good, and if your a chaplin fan like I am then you will love this lovely collection.

You can't do the impossible..........2006-08-05

Although this set tries to do the impossible, it cannot. But it is a very good collection of Chaplin films.

So, to start with, let me cover what is great in this set.

First, the films are as clearly presented as possible, with great sound, pretty good mastering, and good clarity of image. The speed of projection, a subjective topic at best, is quite carefully handled, and seems to be quite good for the most part. (This only affects the silent Gold Rush, btw.)

The restoration of the original silent Gold Rush is excellent, and a welcome addition to the canon. I don't bother arguing over which version is better, silent or sound, because they both exist in our world and such arguments end up amounting to mere preferences.

Which brings me to the first impossibility. It is IMPOSSIBLE to present a "definitive" version of most any Chaplin film, due to the cuts and changes he made in them over the years, and the variation in the editions originally issued. In addition, there are some bits from the original release which simply don't exist in a quality comparable to the quality of the current versions, and which could not be edited in without comprimising the quality.

The Chaplin family made a decision, and stuck to it. They decided to issue the films in the final approved versions, with cuts intact. They also decided to include all cuts as additional material, so that we don't lose what was taken out. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but sometimes a decision must simply be made and stuck with, and the Chaplin family went with this. Not everybody will be satisfied, but the choice has been made.

The additional materials are often good, but equally often pointless. The good stuff includes the Great Dictator documentary, lots of home movies and still, and various sequences from older films that are relevent to the title. The bad stuff includes the truly boring "Chaplin Today" documentaries, which are a great example of material trying to prove a point but instead shooting itself in the foot. I regard these documentaries as another example of doing the impossible - by trying to argue that Chaplin is relevent today (and I think he is), the directors end up proving otherwise. Some things can't be won through argument, but only through experience.

One troubling aspect of this set is that, instead of tranferring the movies fresh from film to NTSC video, the films were transferred from film to PAL video, and then converted. This changes film speed a bit, and introduces unavoidable artifacts and degrades the video quality. While not as bad as the HORRENDOUS "Phantom of the Opera" fiasco, it's a shame that we cannot see these films in their top quality without getting imported dvds from overseas in the original PAL format.

That all said, we have here four (or five) Chaplin films in possibly the best quality possible in a neat package with lots of goodies. There are plenty of quibbles with this set and it's companion, but the fact is that this is as good as it might ever get, until an even better format comes along. The films are wonderful, and it's nice to have a good edition of them again.

Satisfied .......2006-02-21

The collection arrived on time, it was in good condition. Worth watching ... Enjoy

I became a Chaplin Lover.......2006-01-07

I at first decided to look into it, so I went to my school Library which had this collection. All I did was watch a couple films, one from each set(They have 2 sets). I loved both of those films, City Lights and Modern Times. So that determinded my purschase. I recommend it and the pictures are good. They also have music and subtitles set up and even lots of special features. Worth learning something and you can't get that by other sets for that price. Get IT!!!

Chaplin - The Collection, Vol. 1 - Cruel Cruel Love / A Film Johnny / Triple Trouble

Average customer rating:

THE SECOND DEATH OF CHARLES S. CHAPLIN

Chaplin - The Collection, Vol. 1 - Cruel Cruel Love / A Film Johnny / Triple Trouble
Starring: Glen Cavender , Charles Chaplin , Chester Conklin , Alice Davenport , and Minta Durfee
Director: George Nichols
Manufacturer: Madacy
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

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( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: 630529304X
Release Date: 1999-02-02

Customer Reviews:

THE SECOND DEATH OF CHARLES S. CHAPLIN.......2003-06-17

Strictly reserved to Charles S. Chaplin aficionados, the Madacy CHAPLIN #1 DVD presents three movies featuring the genius in his early period. Firstly, CRUEL, CRUEL LOVE, shot in 1914, has one of the tiniest arguments of all Chaplin comedies : he is impersonating a member of the High Society who believes falsely to have swallowed poison. Great facial show of Chaplin !

A FILM JOHNNY (1914) is the least interesting of the three movies. Chaplin, as The Tramp, enters a cinema studio and causes a general fight. Nothing new under the sun.

TRIPLE TROUBLE (1918) presents Charles Chaplin, as The Tramp, and some of the Keystone Cops in a story involving spies, politicians, beggars and... bombs. A little bit confusing but you feel that there's a real gap between this movie and the two first films.

Now the DVD. ... . Images are awful with cuts and so many white spots that, for example, in CRUEL, CRUEL LOVE, you cannot, in certain occasions, understand what you see because there are more white spots than impressed pellicle on your screen. The music could have been average if only it wasn't the same tune playing again, again and again...

A DVD strictly reserved for Chaplin fans waiting for a better transfer.

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