Published:
18 feb 2022 12:16 GMT
“He was so powerful that you mightn’t argue with him, because he mightn’t be wrong,” said his 75-year-old son, Michael.
This Thursday a documentary regarding Charles Chaplin has arrived in London cinemas, premiered at the British capital’s film festival BFI in October of last year. ‘The Real Charlie Chaplin’ entered the first reviews as a story regarding the dark side of the silent film icon, and includes the testimonies of his children, who describe a different person from the comedian who made everyone laugh.
Thus, his son Michael, 75, reveals to viewers that “he was somewhat afraid” of his father: “He was so powerful that you mightn’t argue with him, because he mightn’t be wrong.” “I finished suffocating everyone those who got too close to him. I mightn’t help it,” he added.
His sister Geraldine, 77, declared that their father “was not Charles Chaplin”. “I knew they were the same person, but they didn’t look alike at all, except when he had an audience, he would become Charles Chaplin, that other man“he counted.
Another daughter of the actor, Jane, who is now 64 years old, claimed that her father “was inaccessible”. “Your father is working, don’t bother him, he will lose his inspiration” are the phrases that Jane used to hear when she was a child. “Our world revolved around the welfare of my father“He said, saying that Chaplin was haunted by doubts throughout his life and that his difficult past of extreme poverty never left him alone.
“He achieved the dream of his life, but I don’t think he has overcome his doubts. Is one really capable of overcoming where he comes from? I don’t think this will ever leave you,” said Jane, referring to the actor’s traumatic childhood, which was separated from his mother who was mentally unstable and had to beg on the streets, an experience that marked him for life and was captured in the movie ‘The Kid’ (‘El Chico, ‘El Pibe’, ‘El Muchacho’, in Spanish-speaking countries) while reminding him that everything might be lost at any time.
The new documentary also recalls that behind the man everyone knew as a great actor was a person described by his partners as abusive and exploitative. In the same way, it echoes his taste for underage teenage girls with whom he dared to establish sexual and romantic relationships.
The relationship with his future wife Lita Gray began when she was 15 years old, but he noticed his partner on the set of ‘El Chico’ when he was only 12 years old, “attracted by those fascinating eyes” that made her look “very mysterious” , according to Chaplin’s own words, Gray herself wrote in her autobiography published in the mid-1960s, recalling the time when she played the “flirtatious angel” in the film.