The Gold Rush (original 1925 version) + Chaplin in March!

After The Gold Rush made him an even bigger star than he previously was, Chaplin focused the subject matter of his follow-up film inwards, turning the spotlight on the act of comedy-making itself.  The Circus finds The Tramp running afoul of the law and hiding out within the confines of a travelling three-ring operation; barging in during the middle of a performance, the Tramp inadvertently displays astounding comic skills on the stage, and becomes the circus’s new hottest act.  This deceptively simple set-up gives Chaplin one of his greatest possibility-laden canvases, one onto which he projects a fantastic run of iconic, beautifully executed comic set-pieces: the funhouse hall-of-mirrors chase, the monkey-laden tightrope walk, and his perilous, hilarious stint stuck in the lion cage.  As well, The Circus’s core romance, between Chaplin and co-star Merna Kennedy, is possibly his most realistic and bittersweet, lending a fittingly somber farewell to what Chaplin had (in the end, falsely) assumed would be his final silent. The show kicks off with the classic 1922 Chaplin short Pay Day!
The Circus Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1928, 35mm, 70 min.
Pay Day Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1922, 35mm, 28 min.

Watch the classic “monkey tightrope” scene from “The Circus”!

In the process of producing his farewell to silent film as a medium, Chaplin crafted in Modern Times a superlative statement about the American everyman’s place amongst the crushing realities of the Great Depression, all couched inside truly memorable slapstick conceits whose images haven’t lost an ounce of their power.  From its Metropolis-meets-DEVO “mechanized man” opening act (which would later inspire the classic “assembly line” routine from “I Love Lucy”), to its later “department store fantasia,” political demonstration, prison break and high-class restaurant sequences, this send-up of both capitalism and its socialist counterpart delivers its powerful message amongst a non-stop parade of magnificent antics handpicked and re-created from Chaplin’s early days, and a clever, subtle sound-effects backdrop that never intrudes on the “silent”-ness at the film’s core.  Serious and silly, contemplative and crazy, Modern Times is an unmissable treasure.
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1936, 35mm, 87 min.

Watch an excerpt from “Modern Times”!

We’re thrilled to present a brand-new 35mm restoration of the original 1925 version of The Gold Rush (previously unavailable for decades in its original form, following Charlie Chaplin’s 1942 “sound version”), complete with a newly recorded orchestral score.  Moving, hilarious, and full of invention, The Gold Rush has never looked — or sounded — better!   One of the towering giants of silent film, The Gold Rush is the largest-scale epic comedy event of its time — packed full of astounding visual gags, a tender romance full of heartbreak and butterflies in the stomach, and the perfect balance of slapstick to pathos (a delicate mixture, of which Chaplin was the undisputed king).  The film finds The Tramp as a Klondike gold prospector; while trapped in a frozen cabin with no food during an intense winter, he performs some of his all-time most famous bits: Walking Against The Wind, the Chicken Suit, and Eating His Shoe.  These energizing sequences are matched by the film’s second half, with The Tramp falling in love from a distance with Alaskan beauty Georgia Hale, giving us our hero’s most tender act: the Dance of the Dinner Rolls, a indelible moment so perfect that only a virtuoso like Chaplin could’ve mastered it.   
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1925, 35mm, 88 min.

Watch the legendary “Eating His Shoe” scene from “The Gold Rush”!

We’re thrilled to present a brand-new 35mm restoration of the original 1925 version of The Gold Rush (previously unavailable for decades in its original form, following Charlie Chaplin’s 1942 “sound version”), complete with a newly recorded orchestral score.  Moving, hilarious, and full of invention, The Gold Rush has never looked — or sounded — better!   One of the towering giants of silent film, The Gold Rush is the largest-scale epic comedy event of its time — packed full of astounding visual gags, a tender romance full of heartbreak and butterflies in the stomach, and the perfect balance of slapstick to pathos (a delicate mixture, of which Chaplin was the undisputed king).  The film finds The Tramp as a Klondike gold prospector; while trapped in a frozen cabin with no food during an intense winter, he performs some of his all-time most famous bits: Walking Against The Wind, the Chicken Suit, and Eating His Shoe.  These energizing sequences are matched by the film’s second half, with The Tramp falling in love from a distance with Alaskan beauty Georgia Hale, giving us our hero’s most tender act: the Dance of the Dinner Rolls, a indelible moment so perfect that only a virtuoso like Chaplin could’ve mastered it.   
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1925, 35mm, 88 min.

Watch the legendary “Eating His Shoe” scene from “The Gold Rush”!

We’re thrilled to present a brand-new 35mm restoration of the original 1925 version of The Gold Rush (previously unavailable for decades in its original form, following Charlie Chaplin’s 1942 “sound version”), complete with a newly recorded orchestral score.  Moving, hilarious, and full of invention, The Gold Rush has never looked — or sounded — better!   One of the towering giants of silent film, The Gold Rush is the largest-scale epic comedy event of its time — packed full of astounding visual gags, a tender romance full of heartbreak and butterflies in the stomach, and the perfect balance of slapstick to pathos (a delicate mixture, of which Chaplin was the undisputed king).  The film finds The Tramp as a Klondike gold prospector; while trapped in a frozen cabin with no food during an intense winter, he performs some of his all-time most famous bits: Walking Against The Wind, the Chicken Suit, and Eating His Shoe.  These energizing sequences are matched by the film’s second half, with The Tramp falling in love from a distance with Alaskan beauty Georgia Hale, giving us our hero’s most tender act: the Dance of the Dinner Rolls, a indelible moment so perfect that only a virtuoso like Chaplin could’ve mastered it.   
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1925, 35mm, 88 min.

Watch the legendary “Eating His Shoe” scene from “The Gold Rush”!

We’re thrilled to present a brand-new 35mm restoration of the original 1925 version of The Gold Rush (previously unavailable for decades in its original form, following Charlie Chaplin’s 1942 “sound version”), complete with a newly recorded orchestral score.  Moving, hilarious, and full of invention, The Gold Rush has never looked — or sounded — better!   One of the towering giants of silent film, The Gold Rush is the largest-scale epic comedy event of its time — packed full of astounding visual gags, a tender romance full of heartbreak and butterflies in the stomach, and the perfect balance of slapstick to pathos (a delicate mixture, of which Chaplin was the undisputed king).  The film finds The Tramp as a Klondike gold prospector; while trapped in a frozen cabin with no food during an intense winter, he performs some of his all-time most famous bits: Walking Against The Wind, the Chicken Suit, and Eating His Shoe.  These energizing sequences are matched by the film’s second half, with The Tramp falling in love from a distance with Alaskan beauty Georgia Hale, giving us our hero’s most tender act: the Dance of the Dinner Rolls, a indelible moment so perfect that only a virtuoso like Chaplin could’ve mastered it.   
Dir. Charles Chaplin, 1925, 35mm, 88 min.

Watch the legendary “Eating His Shoe” scene from “The Gold Rush”!