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Chaplin: A Life
“Chaplin is arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema,” wrote film critic Andrew Sarris. Born in London in 1889, Charlie Chaplin grew up in dire poverty. Severe alcoholism cut short his father’s flourishing career, and his beloved mother first lost her voice, then her mind, to syphilis. How did this poor, lonely child, committed to the Hanwell School for the Orphaned and Destitute, become such an extraordinary comedian, known and celebrated worldwide? Dr. Stephen M. Weissman brilliantly illuminates both the screen legend himself and the turbulent era that shaped him.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 4, 2020
I was curious about his artistic influences and how his art imitated his life. This satisfied my curiosity. ❤️
February 4, 2015
After reading Chaplin's Autobiography, I was looking for a biography to fill in the blanks and correct any distortions. I chose this one because it was one of the most recent, and the author didn't have a string of "celebrity" biographies on his record (his only other book that I saw was on Coleridge.) If I had known more about the book, I wouldn't have chosen it.
To begin with, despite the title, it is not really a life of Chaplin; it only goes as far as his first films with Keystone, and is mostly about his childhood. Secondly, it is written by a psychoanalyst from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. And thirdly, it freely uses Chaplin's early (1915) My Own Story "as told to" journalist Rose Wilder Lane, which he repudiated and suppressed before it came out as an inaccurate account. In fact, the book originated in a psychology seminar studying this early book, which accounts for why this book stops at the time that one was written.
This is not to say that the book does not have some interesting information from other more reliable sources, especially about the British Music Hall tradition in which Chaplin was brought up; and the identifying of early analogies and possible sources for scenes and themes in his films was interesting as well, even if somewhat reductionist -- the fact that a film may have been suggested by some early event in his life doesn't mean that is what it is about, even if it explains why it seems so realistic. I think this book explains well why Chaplin was a good actor, but not what made him a great one.
To begin with, despite the title, it is not really a life of Chaplin; it only goes as far as his first films with Keystone, and is mostly about his childhood. Secondly, it is written by a psychoanalyst from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. And thirdly, it freely uses Chaplin's early (1915) My Own Story "as told to" journalist Rose Wilder Lane, which he repudiated and suppressed before it came out as an inaccurate account. In fact, the book originated in a psychology seminar studying this early book, which accounts for why this book stops at the time that one was written.
This is not to say that the book does not have some interesting information from other more reliable sources, especially about the British Music Hall tradition in which Chaplin was brought up; and the identifying of early analogies and possible sources for scenes and themes in his films was interesting as well, even if somewhat reductionist -- the fact that a film may have been suggested by some early event in his life doesn't mean that is what it is about, even if it explains why it seems so realistic. I think this book explains well why Chaplin was a good actor, but not what made him a great one.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews