The preservation and projects, and the annual movie preservation showcase of the Contemporary Museum of Contemporary Art will be closed on Thursday night with Charlie Chaplin's Shoulder Arms. This comedy, starring Chaplin as an American soldier during World War I, has been pleased since the premiere in October 1918.
However, all frames of MOMA's recovery, all frames, and ongoing work may be different from most movie fans in the past century. Dave Keer, a curator in the movie category of the movie, states: (Before joining MOMA, KEHR was a long -standing contribution of The New York Times.)
The version distributed by Chaplin in the United States in 1918 is not a version that has been distributed for decades. To understand why the movie was created, and in a way, and in a way, we will recreate it.
Chaplin shot the “shoulder arm” with two cameras, like the general practice of the Silent era. Kodak had not yet developed an inventory to make duplicate negatives. Chaplin had to create multiple negatives to hit the audience around the world to make enough films to satisfy the audience. “Chaplin's movie was even an event by 1918,” said Scott Aiman, the author of Charlie Chaplin vs. America.
From the video taken with the two cameras, Chaplin assembled four versions of the Shoulder Arm. The most important thing in these was what was called negative. This is a preferred take of Chaplin from his preferred camera angle. The negative was used in 1918 to create a movie version for the US theater.
In other markets, Chaplin is a B -Negative (the favorite take from the unused camera angle), the C negative (his second choice is from his preferred angle), and the AD negative (his second one The selection is taken from another angle). This means that various continental audience saw the “shoulder arm” version, but not the same.
The editors at that time may try to adapt to negative, saying, “Especially in the case of comedians like Chaplin, who worked at the present time, the take was always slightly different.” Ta.
In 1943, a twist occurred when the U.S. Army asked if Chaplin could use the “shoulder weapon” as a morale booster of the Second World World World World World World. The prospective customer pleased the coach, wrote in his 1985 book, “Chaplin: his life and art,” wrote in 1985.
But there was a problem. By that point, deterioration means that negative cannot be used. Peter Williamson, MOMA's movie protection manager, explained in a presentation that the printed print was basically a black screen for the bleaching of the image.
B Negative would have been off limits to Chaplin for complicated rights. In any case, it was destroyed by a fire in 1938. In other words, Chaplin's legitimate shooting director, Lorito Tosaro, cooperate when making printed materials for the Army screening.
To further complicate the problem, the Army has shown the “shoulder arm” to the sound projector. The sound projector ran in 24 frames per second, a faster rate used by the projector in 1918. The film was stretched to adjust these projectors. The specific frame has doubled and the movie has been speeded up. As a result, many movements of the “shoulder arms” would have been jerky.
Finally, the revision of the 1940s was trimmed in another pattern when it was included in the 1959 “The Chaplin Revue”, which summarizes the “Shoulder Arms” and the other two chaplin movies “A”. He said he was printed. Dog Life (1918) and “Pilgrim” (1923).
This “shoulder arm” has been used since 1959 and is generally used in today's official release. However, most of it came from D -negative, said Williamson. And many movements are still jerky for stretch printing.
Since 2021, Aidrian Gerber, a historian of the film in the archivist, works with Archiblichit Spiel/Kinematech Bern in Switzerland to find and catalogs to find all surviving film versions of Shoulder Arms. I cooperated in. MOMA reported a copy, but Gerber said he was not aware of the restoration until this weekend.
“We are very happy because this was the basic goal of our research projects,” he said. “We wanted to do research to perform appropriate restoration.” Lichtspiel was a small archive and had no resources to restore the movie itself.
MOMA's goal was to reconstruct a movie seen by American viewers in 1918. Thursday screening was assembled as much as possible from surviving prints based on the original Anegative material. MOMA is ongoing because it had to return to 16 mm and 28 mm prints for a small part of the movie. If these sections appear in 35 millimeters, you can complete the restoration.
However, the stretch print is gone, and the “shoulder arm” is executed in 20 frames suitable for more periods. Pathé released in Japan in 1927, the closest to this version, used a negative, but changed the title card.
In order to see how all shots branch, it is necessary to compare them side by side, but some variations are impressive.
In the restoration, he walks towards the camera when the infantry Chaplin will enter the trench for the first time, and returns his movement. In the “Chaplin Revue” version, he enters from the opposite side of Trench, and the camera is initially forward.
In other places, the noisy sequence of Chaplin's adventure behind the enemy line begins with a slight different enemy line that is disguised as a tree, and the stars scrape behind. After cutting to a closer view, Chaplin seems to be a little more troubled by the MOMA version of the tree.
“Shoulder Arms” is not the only movie that was recreated a few years after Chaplin released. “He has reissued almost all his quiet movies several times to keep him relevant because his production has been delayed,” said Aiman. Aman explains that Chaplin Estate supports the version left by filmmaker when he died in 1977, and that it is always a source of debate, and both methods are strongly performed. 。
Nevertheless, he added, “In an important community, people want to see what he made when he was in full bore.”
Arnold Rosano, a managerial manager of Paris office, which represents the ownership of Chaplin in e -mail, pointed out the perfectionism of the director even in the latter half of his life, and the policy of screening rights holders is Chaplin's hope and family. He said he would respect the instructions. However, the score added by Chaplin Review and Chaplin to the “Shoulder Arm” remains under the copyright, but the movie that existed in 1918 has passed the era of Public Domains in the United States. , Clear the MOMA road. Restore screen screening.
Kia compared Chaplin's tinkering to George Lucas. “What we are doing for you is the 1977 Star Wars,” he said. “It's not” Star Wars “in 2024. “
