Customer Reviews

Remembering Charlie

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REMEMBERING CHARLIE is mainly about the author Jerry Epstein's friendship between Chaplin and the production of Limelight, A King in New York, A Countess From Hong Kong and the never finished film The Freak.

It is simply excellent. Marlon Brando once said that "friends don't write books about their friends." I can see his point, but no worry about this one. This is a book written with a warm heart, an account from a friend attempting to tell the world about Charlie Chaplin the man as well as the artist; and his attempt is more than satisfying. Chaplin's periodical arrogance and self-consiousness was a part of him, and Epstein is honest with that, but always with understanding. He wasn't "an egotistical tyrant" as Brando wrote in his autobiography -- he was a human being with both human strenghts and human weaknesses and a remarkable talent.

Along with Chaplin's autobiography, David Robinson's book and his son Charlie Jr.'s, this is the most interesting book I've ever read about the man I consider to be the film medium's undisputed genius of all time. His last three movies and the joy and suffering behind them are described to last detail, plenty of the information has never been as much as mentioned previously.

REMEMBERING CHARLIE offers a unique portrait of Chaplin as a father and friend; he was charming and arrogant, openhearted and impossible to compromise with. The book also includes 280 pictures taken from both his movies and private life, many of whom have never been available in public.

Recommended to all Chaplin-fans and newcomers who simply are curious about him.