Homing In to Chaplin’s World

In October 2024, I visited the Charlie Chaplin Museum, Chaplin’s World, and toured his family home in Vevey, Switzerland. Not only can you learn about his many films, but it is possible to see handwritten pages of his autobiography in his study. His work is especially significant in view of the current political context. Chaplin had to leave the U.S. during the McCarthy period that carried out witch hunts, expelling artists and actors that were suspected of being linked to communism during the “Red Scare.”
 
Charlie Chaplin’s lifework spanned from films to his autobiography that describes his difficult childhood. Growing up as a young boy with his brother, and mother who was ill, he was forced to use his acting abilities on vaudeville stages to survive. His stage experience started him on a path that would take him from London, to L.A., and finally to Switzerland.
 
His satire about Hitler in The Great Dictator provides an example of artistic engagement in times of rising authoritarianism. Chaplin’s words appear in a Vanity Faire article: What Charlie Chaplin Got Right About Satirizing Hitler

(Chaplin’s) speech makes a case for humanity in the face of grave evil. "We think too much and feel too little," Chaplin says. "More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness." You’ll recognize this theme—"more than machinery we need humanity"—throughout Chaplin’s work, and it rings especially true here. Chaplin emerges, fully human, as himself, breaking free of the film’s satirical trappings, to deliver one from the heart.
 
Chaplin’s life history reminds us of the powerful role of satire. His autobiography testifies to his incredible ability to rise above the poverty of his childhood, express his genius as an actor and filmmaker, and ultimately find happiness in family life surrounded by his wife and many children. Seeing through the eyes of his camera allows us to perceive the power of satire to reveal the dictator’s villainy that is bound up with his immaturity. Chaplin believed that Hitler should be laughed at.
 
Can Chaplin’s style of satire be used to poke at the fragile egos of male world leaders today? Who will find the courage to make a film that pokes at the performance of rising autocratic power on the world stage? What would Chaplin make of today’s machinery and AI? Today more than ever we need humanity. “Laugh,” Chaplin says, laughing opens our hearts and eyes.

Here is an excerpt of The Great Dictator to get you laughing.

Here is a BBC article-The Great Dictator: The film that dared to laugh at Hitler

Here is the link to Chaplin’s World, that shows his home overlooking the lake and exhibits about his films and filmmaking career in the museum.