Chaplin Project
The Chaplin Project began in 1998 when the Cineteca di Bologna restored The Kid (1921), bringing Charlie Chaplin’s early masterpiece back to its original splendor. Since then the Cineteca and its restoration laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata in close collaboration with the Association Chaplin have fully restored nearly sixty of the films Chaplin made over the course of his extraordinary career. From the great classics of the silent era such as The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) to later works like Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952) and A King in New York (1957) – without forgetting the roots of the legendary Tramp, the comedies made for Keystone (1914) and Mutual (1916-1917, in partnership with BFI and Lobster Films), and featurettes made right before Chaplin branched out on his own such as A Dog’s Life and Shoulder Arms (1918). For the 100th anniversary of a character who embodied the “short twentieth century” like no other, the Cineteca will finish the first phase of a long and complex restoration journey with the 14 comedies Chaplin made for the Essanay Film Corporation (1915-1916).
The Chaplin Project has also catalogued and digitalized the enormous Charlie Chaplin Archive with the objective of preserving over 150,000 paper and photographic materials while also making them accessible through a database and special research center visited by dozens of researchers, students and film historians every year.
The Chaplin Project's permanent mission is to continue explore Chaplin vast archive to shed new light on his personal and artistic journey and the creation of his works.
The Chaplin Project is supported by Fondazione Carisbo
