Anatomy of a Book Launching - A Comedian Sees the World
 This month I’m borrowing a subtitle
from James Agee’s great book Let
Us Now Praise Famous Men in order to
signal the fact that I’m postponing
my newsletter on Limelight until
I’ve gotten my stuff unpacked in my
new house and can find all the notes I made.
I thought you all might not mind if I used
this newsletter to describe my recent experience
at Il
Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna,
Italy, where my Progetto Chaplin book was
launched. Needless to say, it was a once-in-a-lifetime
experience.
I arrived as I usually do—without
fanfare—but when I checked in with
Cecilia Cenciarelli and the Progetto Chaplin
folks, I soon discovered just how well-received
the book already was. “The Book”
is a new edition of Charlie’s 1931-2
travel memoir, A Comedian Sees the World,
which Progetto Chaplin very kindly chose
to be their 5th book in the series.
Besides my book launching, other
Chaplin aspects of the festival
this year included a showing of
8 new Keystone restorations (I only
got to see five) and a showing out
on the Piazza Maggiore of A
King in New York introduced
by Michael Chaplin. Michael was
also supposed to be a significant
part of the Dossier Chaplin, which
would take part on Saturday late
afternoon (the last day). I was
to give an introductory lecture
on my book at that time as well.
So, most of the week was spent watching
rare films and working in the Progetto Chaplin office on my next book,
the first study of the life and
art of Syd Chaplin, Charlie’s
inimitable half brother—until
Friday. Friday, July 7th, was earmarked
as the day of the big press conference,
featuring Cecilia Cenciarelli, Kate
Guyonvarch of Association Chaplin,
the Cineteca director, Gian Luca
Farinelli, Chiara Mazzotti from
Fondazione Carisbo, the bank foundation
that financed all of this, Michael
Chaplin and myself. Michael didn’t
quite make it into town in time,
but the rest of us performed our
duties very well. Truly, this was
right out of the movies. Lovely
old restored building with all sorts
of hand-painted wall decorations
and such and then the state-of-the-art
pressroom, with boxy burnt-orange
leather chairs behind a completely
transparent Lucite dais. The room
actually filled up with press folks,
including a couple of photographers
and one cameraman. Thank god I packed
a skirt or two for such occasions!
This was serious business. And I
had somehow gotten the bright idea
of speaking off-the-cuff, but thankfully,
I didn’t do too badly. That
was to come!
 During lunch that day, Cecilia got
a call asking if I would consider
being interviewed for a popular
cult radio program called “Hollywood
Party” for RAI
3 Radio (similar to NPR) out
of Rome. Sure! So about 7 o’clock
(this is why I missed three Keystones)
I went into this small room at the
Cineteca and took part in the most
complicated radio interview you
can imagine. My interviewer was
a guy named Tatti
Sanguinetti, an associate of
Fellini’s I guess, and he
was sitting at the desk right in
front of me. I was to hold the telephone
handset to my ear. He would speak
to me on the phone in Italian (although
he was in the same room!), Cecilia
would then translate his questions,
I would answer them into the phone
in English and she would then translate
them into Italian on another handset.
Six questions delivered with my
answers, at the speed of lightning.
And then we all had the pleasure
of sticking around and watching
one of Fellini’s leading ladies,
Sandra
Milo from 8 ½,
do a very kitchy interview. Seventy
years old and looking incredible
in a black fishnet top with black
undergarments visible underneath.
Stiletto heels and blonde hair.
Amazing.
As a bit of a sidebar, the restored
Keystones, with one exception, are a
real treat. The ones I saw were The
Fatal Mallet, The Star Boarder, A Busy
Day, The Face on the Barroom Floor
and Caught in a Cabaret. The
last one was still very difficult to
look at really, but the others were
great. Who knew that The Star Boarder,
for instance, has a scene with Charlie
on the tennis courts?  It has to be the
first filmic record of this, for sure.
Charlie in a skirt in A Busy Day
is always funny, especially when you
can see his expressions so clearly,
but The Fatal Mallet was my
favorite. If you remember, Charlie,
Mack Sennett, some young boy child and
Mack Swain, all vie for the favors of
Mabel Normand in this one, and with
the film so well restored, I was able
to enjoy all the nuances of the thing
for the first time. The films I missed
because of the interview included His
Prehistoric Past (and, boy, I hated
to miss this one), Between Showers,
and The Knockout, which is
mostly Roscoe Arbuckle anyway.
 The week and the festival ended
with A King in New York,
shown outside on the Piazza Maggiore
and first introduced by Michael
Chaplin. Standing room only; very
well received; the festival couldn’t
have had a more appropriate final
moment. And, just to get you all
prepared for next year—Gian
Luca Farinelli announced at the
press conference that since 2007
is the final year of Progetto
Chaplin at the Cineteca, that
the festival would feature a complete
retrospective of Chaplin films,
and also, (although this is not
confirmed yet) the “Chaplin
in Pictures” exhibit that
has been touring around Europe
the past two years. So make your
reservations now and get your
bags packed. Hope to see you all
there!
|
