|
Rating:  -
Love it...........That man or rather when he was a boy worked so many jobs and moved around constantly, he sure had a lot of "ups and downs" as a child. Still reading the book, but I find it very fascinating.
Really getting into the Silent film era, I wish more people would too. These marvels of the early movie industry are genius's.
Thanks Again
Rating: -
There is no doubt that Chaplin was a man of many talents, but he was also a human being. And like us all, was of contradictions, and many flaws. He tells of an absolute horrible childhood,with an alcoholic father, and a very emotional, unstable mother,that left him with a wary eye,towards practically everyone. It is true, that this autobiography left out those that he considered his equal. Such as Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton. He was probably deeply in love with a young girl named Hetty Kelly,that he knew in England-whom he never told how much he cared for her, and when she died, affected him profoundly. His pattern of marriages and their subsequent failures, told me that forever after, he continued to search for Hetty Kelly. Chaplin may have been famous, but this was one deeply sad story, that gave him a lifetime, to reflect on, and mourn.
Rating: -
Charlie Chaplin was always a sort of mystery to me. I never understood the political mystique, the teary-eyed love of all his fans, the emotional attachment. But I do now. He was a wonderful and courageous individual. He was human. He had weaknesses; he had loves. The story of his childhood in England and his mother was a Dickens novel in itself. I could hardly believe it. What a book. I thoroughly enjoyed it - from cover to cover.
Rating:  -
CHARLES CHAPLIN: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY tells the revealing life of one of the most beloved and iconic American silver screen legends of the twentieth century. In his well-known bowl hat, toothbrush mustache, floppy shoes, and bamboo cane, Chaplin had a long illustrious film career that spanned from 1914 to 1957 where he made about 88 films. Through his modest upbringing in Victorian era England by former stage performers, Charles and Hannah Chaplin, Charles picked up where his parents left off. He was an entertainer as he was an articulate man who lived a somewhat vagabond life, which included travels all over the world, but between directing and performing, he spent his time reading the classics from history to philosophy; he was observant of the world around him, but dealt with the subject of history as poetic and a breath of skepticism. Chaplin states, "After all, there are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books" (323).
MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY does not cover controversial terrain. Chaplin is honest and respectful of the people he encountered throughout his career, and this is conveyed within his narrative. Charlie Chaplin lived and worked during the most serious periods in world history, the two World Wars and the controversy of looming accusations that he was tied to communist sentiment. Chaplin had the opportunity to become acquainted with the most towering dignitaries of the world, Sir Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, US presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, he offers little hints of particular encounters, such as with his meeting with Herbert Hoover, but does not elaborate on the details and leaves it up to the readers to come to their own conclusions. Indeed, he had a deep concern for humanity. He clearly was cognizant in translating his concerns through his creative endeavors, such as in his full-length films, "City Lights" and "The Great Dictator." One of the interesting aspects of Chaplin's discussion of "Dictator" is that he includes the transcript to the last lines to the film in this book.
As a fixture of Hollywood, Chaplin shared the limelight with his peers. His most revered friendships were with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, William Randolph Hearst, H.G. Wells, and mentor Upton Sinclair. He also experienced less than stellar relationships with different women that led to three failed marriages, but finally succeeded in finding happiness with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, when she was only eighteen years old and shockingly, he was in his 50's.
Overall, Charlie Chaplin shares with readers his most creative and colorful life. The only weakness to the book is that Chaplin seldom mentions any particular date to an event, thus readers are assumed to have knowledge of history and the individuals in which he speaks about in order to parallel these events to his own life. Nevertheless, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY will enlighten the Chaplin aficionado or curious reader.
Rating: -
Once grown up, sort of, I never lingered long at the video shop over Chaplin's oeurve, passing his famous movies by for another day and then renting the Mambo Kings or True Grit, whatever. Finding his autobiography on a sale rack at Gecko Books in Chiang Mai stopped me though, and a few perused pages were enough to intrigue me as the man wrote affectionately and well. How the world has changed! Chaplin will acquaint you with turn-of-the-century London with its vibrant theatrical entertainment juxtaposed with 'work houses' and 'loony bins'. His initial tours as a stage actor in America are wonderfully rendered, filled with anecdotes worthy of Dos Passos, then followed by his swift ascent to fame and fortune working in and transforming the nascent movie industry in Los Angeles. After that sweet ride Chaplin confronted the 'talkies', a somewhat diminished energy and, eventually, the crude machinations of a voracious media and paranoid government. These latter periods are peppered throughout with overly long renditions of the rich and famous who sought him out or he them; mostly they ate and drank together. The look into celebrityhood is, at the very least, quite entertaining as a test of trivia. My Autobiography is a fine book and very well written, by one of the most engaging men of the twentieth century - I've got to rent those videos.
Television Show
Collectibles
Movie Searches
|
|
|
Search for posters,
art prints, photos, collectables, merchandise, toys, t-shirts
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Join the Nielsen//NetRatings Research Panel and you could win a new car, a dream vacation, a dream home makeover or $50,000 Cash!
TV Guide
Program listings, celebrity profiles, industry
gossip, movie reviews, puzzle.
More
Entertainment
& TV Magazines
This site is
Hosted
by Bluehost
Read
my Bluehost Review
Original Superhero & other designs for t-shirts, bumper
stickers, prints, mugs, and other cool merchandise. |
|
