【视频】| Eugene Chaplin: the Man & the Father & the Tramp yuztalk-余德耀美术馆
On June 9th, the first day of the exhibition “Charlie Chaplin: A Vision” opening to the public, Eugene Chaplin (son of Charlie Chaplin), Tatyana Franck (director of the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne), Adrien Gardère (museographer and scenographer), Tang Weijie (associate professor in Tongji University and film scholar) and Justine Alexandria (Acting CEO of Yuz Museum) got together. After the first session of four speeches远超炒货 , all the guests had a panel discussion to present different facets of Charlie Chaplin, and something more, over the exhibition.
Eugene Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin the Man & the Father & the Little Tramp
To understand my father better, you have to understand his childhood. He was born in London during the Victorian days. His mother was called Hannah, his father was called Charles Senior. They were both singers at the musical. His father disappeared from his life quite quickly at the age of 5. He had drinking problems and didn’t support the family. So, Charlie was left with his half-brother Sydney and his mother Hannah. Hannah did absolutely everything to try to bring food onto the table and to be able to feed her kids. As I said幻刃仙缘 , she was a singer, but she got sick. She had a voice problem.
The first part of "Charlie Chaplin. A Vision" shows the poster for Charles Chaplin Senior as well as the program featuring Charlie's mother under her stage name 'Lily Chaplin'.
Yuz Museum, 2018水冶信息港 , Photo by JJYPHOTO
The story goes that one day she was on stage singing and suddenly her voice crackled and she couldn’t continue. So Charlie, my father同心生死约 , who was in the wings inside of the stage, saw his mother in a big trouble. So, he came on and finished the song. He was only 5 years old. People thought that was so cute and threw money to him. The more he was saying “thank you”, the more money was being thrown at him. I think it was the moment he realized, “that’s the job I want to do”.
First chapter of "Charlie Chaplin. A Vision": London Street and Stage, Yuz Museum, 2018, Photo by JJYPHOTO
After that, his mother got sicker and sicker, and she had to be put into a hospital. He found different jobs until he joined the Fred Karno Company, which was a big musical company. The musical at the time was a place where you could go and see dancers, singers, and acrobats entertain people. If you’re good, people would applaud you, and if you’re bad, they would boo you, and throw things on a stage. So, you have to be good enough to perform well. Basically, he learned his art there.
With that troupe, he travelled to America for a tour. During that time, he was playing as a drunker. He was sitting in the audience and disturbing the performers. At first王鲲鹏 , they thought it was someone in the audience who fell from the balcony onto stage. People started to really like him对联生成器 , and he became famous for that. Mack Sennett at the time saw him there and sent a telegram to Charlie saying that, “I’d like to use you, I’d like to film you”. So, my father went and presented himself. “You’re not Charlie. Charlie is known as a drunk guy.” So, he had to act drunk to prove that he was the real person.
Video:Charlie Chaplin inA Night at the show
From there on, everything went very quickly. He became famous. He started directing his own films. He started to write his own stories. He started to build his own studio. What I’d like to say about his work is that he worked very hard, he knew exactly what he wanted, he was a perfectionist. He knew the part of every role, even the women’s roles. He would show the ladies how they were supposed to act in front of a camera. At the time, it was very important because the camera was on a tripod which didn’t move and, he asked actors to play in front of it. There were only people from musicals, like Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd. They were all from the same type of school. That’s why they were so successful.
At work, he knew exactly what he wanted, and it was very difficult for actors because he didn’t leave any space for improvisation. He would tell them exactly what he wanted. There were a lot of arguments. People didn’t like working with Chaplin too much because he was too strict and too hard. What I say is, when you have a perfectionist like that, if the end product is good, then he’s a genius; if the end product is bad, then he’s a tyrant. That was the difference. What he did was very successful, so obviously he was a genius十岁大钦差 , but he was a very difficult man to work for.
Installation View of "Charlie Chaplin. A Vision"保诺科技 , Yuz Museum, 2018潘若瑶 , Photo by JJYPHOTO
Charles Chaplin on the set ofThe Gold Rush(United Artists) with assistant Eddie Sutherland (left), Truckee, California, April 1924 拳王之王 ? Roy Export Co. Ltd / courtesy Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, scan courtesy Cineteca di Bologna
All my life, people come up to me and say, “Wasn’t he difficult,” “Wasn’t he strict?” This is what I like to say about my father. I knew my father. He was a father to me, he was hardworking. Living in the house, it was organized by my mother. The children were sent to school in the morning, we had lunch at school. My father was alone at home. He was left alone to do whatever he was going to do: writing biography, composing music or writing the script for his next film. At four o’clock in the afternoon, we came back from school. He’d stop working and spend time with us. Around the dinner table, we always had dinner together, he would ask us, “How did school go,” “How did things go?” He was interested in our lives. During the summer days, I remember having fantastic time playing football. He would kick the ball from far away, and we hit back. It was really fun.
But he was very strict at education. He always wanted us to do well. I think, deep down, he was hoping that one of the children would be a lawyer or a banker, something like that, or a surgeon. Unfortunately, none of us could be qualified. He always said to us, “You can do whatever job you want, but do it well, since I don’t like laziness. I don’t mind what you want to do, sweep the streets, if that’s what you like. Do the streets, but clean them well. If I see you not putting your heart into it, I’ll get mad.” Personally, I wasn’t very good at school, I didn’t like school that much, and he was very frustrated with that. So, he would see me and say, “Eugene, you don’t know how lucky you’re to go to school. You have to know how important education is. How lucky you’re to have all this.” I was twelve years old, and I was looking at him and said, “Yes, dad.” Now I know what he meant and it’s so true.
When he got mad, it would always last two to three days. So on the second day, he would see me and go like, “Ah, that’s the boy who doesn’t do well at school.” And on the third day it went like, “Ah, that’s…(the boy)”. And on the fourth day, my mother would come and say, “Quick, hide away. Dad is coming.” So there would be no more confrontation. However, he’d eventually forget, he was very caring.
Installation View of "Charlie Chaplin. A Vision", showing Chaplin with his family,Yuz Museum, 2018, Photo by JJYPHOTO
Saying that we had a normal life would be exaggerating. Life was very organized at the house, but we lived in a bubble. The 25 years he lived in Switzerland was pure happiness for him. He married my mother. It’s difficult for me to talk about life at home without talking about my mother, because it was always the two together. I always think that it was extraordinary because for someone who was so ambitious and knew exactly what he wanted when he was in America, he suddenly met my mother and his life changed completely. He couldn’t do anything without her. So, if he was composing music, he would play the music to my mother. My mother would say, “This is not bad,” he would take this. He wrote his own biography, she read every page and gave every critique. It’s true that behind every great man, there’s a great woman. My mother was that. He was a passionate man about the human being and the human condition. You’ve seen it in his films. His private life was like that as well. If he had some girlfriends or had some trouble with girlfriends迪莎帕塔尼 , it’s because he loved being in love; it’s emotion, it’s passion. When he met my mother, I think it’s extraordinary because he came from nowhere, he made a lot of money, and then used that money to live happily. And he did live happily for the last 25 years.
As you all know, he went back to America, in the 70s, to receive an Oscar for all his works. I think he made peace with America when he went there. At first, he didn’t want to go, but my mother pushed him to go there. I remember five minutes before going on the stage, he was saying, “I can’t go, after all they did to me.” My mother said, “Please go, I’ll come with you.” Once he was on stage, all his friends were there. There was a 20-minute standing ovation when he appeared. That touched him. When he went back to Switzerland, I think he was happy that he was accepted by America again, and he made peace with America.
As you know, he lived on until the age of 88. Until about 82, he was absolutely in great shape physically, then he had some health problems. The old age caught up with him. At the age of 88, he had a stroke. He died in his sleep on Christmas day. A lot of questions people asked me were, “Did you ever realize that your father was famous?” I would say at that time, “No. Not really.” I knew people knew him, but that’s it. I think it’s extraordinary that I’m here today, 30 years after his death, speaking about him. And there are still so many people who are attracted and still love him. I’m very touched by that.
AboutEugene Chaplin
Born in 1953, Eugene Chaplin was number 5 of a family of eight children. He was the first of Charlie and Oona Chaplin’s children to be born in Switzerland where he grew up at the Manoir de Ban in Corsier sur Vevey, (converted in 2016 into the museum CHAPLIN’s WORLD.)After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, he worked at the Geneva Opera house as Stage manager, and later with the Balanchine Ballet. He moved to work at Mountain Studios in Montreux as sound engineer for the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Queen, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and many more musicians who came to record in Montreux.
Eugene founded TV Sud, a TV channel for Africans in France, and later wrote and produced a musical “Smile”, based on his father’s life and music and a documentary about his father "My Tribute".His interest also extends to comedy, being the president of the International Comedy Film Festival of Vevey,李冠廷 Switzerland, but his finest expertise is in the field of traditional circus arts, having worked as artistic director of the Nock Circus for many years and been consultant to the International Circus Festival of Vaudreuil-Dorion, in Canada. Today he is regularly invited to sit on the jury of circus art competitions the world over.