Charlie Chaplin. The Keystone comedies in DVD 
After reviewing all four discs of this long-awaited DVD box set, I write two lines of comment and some impressions.
So CHAPLIN: THE Keystone comedy is a product of home video high bill. Never, I repeat never, had been available as a complete ensemble of the works of Chaplin Keystones and with a much higher image quality. The restoration of the comic so mistreated (the "critical" has always focused on the mature period of Chaplin, leaving the already Essenays Mutuals and largely at the margins, let alone any Keystones) was very long and in the past ten years has seen the collaboration of film archives around the world (all supported by our local "Film Library of Bologna) and experts of great fame and for which I have the utmost respect and I have the greatest respect. In
DVD contains all 34 films that Chaplin turned to this studio in 1914, excluding perhaps only now definitely lost HER FRIEND THE BANDIT, plus the first part of the recently discovered A THIEF CATCHER - I mentioned in this very blog a few months ago, more interviews, a study of the locations, and some other curiosities. Overall this set is a must for any fan of Chaplin and I would say to any fan of silent comedy.
Most copies are definitely the best you could get. I was ecstatic Johnnie's vision of A FILM, THE FACE ON THE BAR ROOM FLOOR, HIS PAST PREISTORIC, Tillie's Punctured Romance to name just a few titles. I would say that almost all films are visually enjoyable. Even the musical accompaniment are worthy of note, composed and interpreted with skill by some of the greatest experts in the music of silent comedies in the world.
said, perfection is not of this world but certainly not in this set. A THIEF CATCHER, for example, is brutally interrupted just a few seconds after the entrance of Chaplin. Given the recent discovery, it is likely that Paul has agreed to donate Gierucky not in full but only a part (being careful not to show all the scenes with Charlie the cop). However this DVD seems to break in and out of tune is biting his tongue at every viewer.
What really left me perplexed, however, concerns the incompleteness of certain securities which are not presented in the best version to date as possible. Despite the praise I've just finished weaving this set-to-duties are in fact was really bad to see a superficial approach applied during the reconstruction work. It would not take much to create a masterpiece. Instead, it is not. Unfortunately.
are many frames, and sometimes even small sections of real scenes that were available in other sources (16 or 35mm home video equipment or even existing) and have not been incorporated. I decided to list the most painful losses I personally believe that, by omitting significant cuts in the economy of the box but in my opinion, even negligible, such as opening KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE (missing), the finale of The Knockout (more fully elsewhere ) or other things of this kind. I therefore decided to focus only on what I think is really serious.
Given that much of what remains there are remakes of Keystones Production WH (1918 circa), shortened in the editing room in a primitive-frame deletion unexpectedly at the beginning or end of a scene in order to speed up the action - it is virtually impossible to know how effectively these shorts had their first outing of 1914. You can still work on what is certainly left of those movies (although sometimes the sources can be difficult to find) and that every year aiming at historical accuracy should contain.
If this short list have sometimes been overly critical, stubborn or severe, this is solely due to the great love I have for the silent comedy and Charlie Chaplin and the great passion that I put in all this. There's no animosity there polemical. Let me be clear.
So, in the following securities of the shortcomings I found ..
BETWEEN SHOWERS, composed of material of excellent quality - I had never seen a copy so sharp and so nice to look at-but missing the first shot to the top and contains some jumps in time frame of entry into the scene, Ford Sterling, not clear as the first appearance of Charlie leaned against the fence: there is a clear cut because vanishes like a ghost from one frame to another. There is also another small cut near the end, while Ford and Chester Conklin Sterlig going to slam against each other. Note that these cuts were also present in other circulating copies of the film on DVD or VHS, but it would be possible to trace them through private collectors.
HIS FAVORITE Pastime lacks a few seconds after Charlie fell on the couch (The scale) and lights a cigarette. Also this incompleteness could have been remedied if he sought the hand of some collectors or have found multiple copies of the film at the time of the restoration process.
CAUGHT IN A CABARET inexplicably missing the end of the first reel. We do not know why this is not the hammer that Charlie settles in Chester Conklin in this edition is only mentioned to you immediately cut to the start of the second reel. There are about three or four seconds to rob the film of one of the gags. To understand the spread of this scene, this really in a lot of copies, enough to say that this edition is also in good quality PASSPORT VIDEO and other editions from the same source (though full of intertitles). Honestly, in a job like a lightness of this type is really inexplicable.
LAUGHING GAS lacks the opening shot of Charlie, who before entering the dental yawns twice and looks toward the camera. All this is even (that says it all) not in the RAI (
Charlot Dentists) submitted in 1989 in "Chaplin all in chronological order." Imagine how easy it would be jumping out during the restoration. RECREATION
is the black sheep of the set. The copy is blurry, washed out (with the exception of an insert in 35mm a couple of minutes late) and is identical to what I used to see in the DVD editions of low-level circulation in about ten years ago. In the wake of restoration reads:
All existing copies of "Recreation" is fragmented, damaged or have a very bad image quality . It is not true. It 's a huge bale. Should at least have to write something like this: "Almost all copies of" Recreation "is fragmented, damaged or have a very bad image quality. So far we have not been able to produce better copy." It is not to suggest boldly the words to use, but frankly, reading this blatant misinformation is bad for the heart. To begin with, as for other securities, would have been enough to spend some more money knocking at the door of collectors also long been known that in Argentina, specifically to the Cinémathèque Hebraica in Buenos Aires, this is a very good copy of the film, even in 35mm. I do not know what is behind this "oversight". Perhaps the film archives of the old rusty?
At least they could have put that part much better visually present in the anthology
The Clown Princes of Hollywood Paul Killiam that was not recently. He "covered" a wide area of \u200b\u200bfilm, from where the sailor wakes up and reaches Charlie and the girl to the point where Charlie is the innocent before the policeman. HIS NEW PROFESSION
is mutilated well fitted and not (initially). The comic begins with a shot of the newspaper that covers the face of Charlie, this openness has been added a few seconds later this year. For heaven's sake, that's nothing earth-shattering. The worst is after. Missing three points of the film. Before proposing the sick to receive money in advance to get a drink, Charlie was already past the front door, he continued to wipe his pants and had cleaned a also the head of his "patient." Then, as I was leaving, he had thought to get a drink. Well, the scene just described, which leads to the demand for money, restored edition just out THERE '. So as there is (except for a short fragment) the whole scene at the bar. It 's a shame because it is a very funny scene in which Charlie manages to downing more drinks escaping the gaze of the bartender Roscoe Arbuckle. What's more, this copy is also missing the final film, which sees Charlie go along with the frightened girl. Everything I just described is easily available on DVD or VHS that many issues were on the market in the '90s and early 2000. Those Love Pangs
is presented in an copy of excellent and well-defined and very well set to music by Antonio Coppola. Unfortunately, however, lacks the first part, which could have been found in an edition to 16mm, integral, from voiced by a reprint of the forties, in possession of a collector who reasonably-paid-would agree to donate to the process of restoration and reconstruction of the film. It is not just a loss: they are less than forty seconds of film.
HIS PLACE trysting is also incomplete. The scene of "combat" in the kitchen of Charlie and Mabel is a bit 'longer than it appears in this edition and added the finding could have been, in one way or another.
The end of the film was cut off and is lost the final kiss between Charlie and Mabel, present in many copies of the film available.
In conclusion, CHAPLIN AT KEYSTONE (or CHAPLIN: THE COMIC KEYSTONE version Italian if you prefer) is an excellent release, surely the best on the market for this so-repeat-neglected period of art the king of comedy, but it is not, of course, a definitive edition. There runs so much.
And here we are at December 31. A year that is ending. One year of assiduous reading, and stir and turn the pages of books read, adored or hated. 
