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Chaplin's The Tramp centennial

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30 Jun 2014
Film Fest Gent (14 to 25 October) is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Charlie Chaplin’s the Tramp with exceptional screenings of two of the greatest classics of Charles Spencer Chaplin: 'The Circus' and 'The Gold Rush'. On 26 October, the festival will be getting an additional film music event toward its ending with a family concert of the silent film classic 'The Circus' (1928). The film be screened with music composed by Chaplin, performed by a live orchestra led by Music Director Dirk Brosse at Kuipke Gent. Dirk Brosse: "Leading a silent film is always very exciting. Sometimes I feel like a tightrope walker who suddenly looks down, in this case almost literally. The music that Chaplin composed is compelling and efficacious. It waltzes from comedy to drama and banters from laughter to tears. And as is often the case: melancholy is never far away." In recognition of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October, Film Fest Gent will screen 'The Gold Rush' (1925), in collaboration with OCMW Ghent at City Hall. Each year different organizations from Ghent join forces to honour the victims of poverty, exclusion and violence at the Statue of Human Rights at the St. Peter's Square. Other activities are also organised at Ghent City Hall. Chaplin’s 'The Circus' presented by Proximus and supported by Ghent University will take place on Sunday, 26 October at Kuipke Gent at 15:00 Tickets are €15 (standard) and €12 (kids under 12) and are available through this link.

Patrick Duynslaegher, artistic director of Film Film Fest: "The reason why we are celebrating Charles Chaplin explicitly this year, immediately clarifies to what he owes his worldwide fame and immortality to: 2014 is not a commemoration of his birth (1889) or the year of his death (1977), but the year in which he created the character of the Tramp."

Chaplin was a moderately well known British vaudeville star when he signed a contract in January 1914 to appear in a few slapstick movies of Mack Sennett’s American production company Keystone Studios. Eventually he would act in 35 shorts and a feature film in twelve months time for Sennett. He appeared in the short film 'Kids Auto Races at Venice, Cal'. for the first time as the Tramp, a character that would make him world famous. The Tramp, also a gentleman, is a poet and a dreamer, a lonesome man that always hopes for some romance and adventure.