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Charlie Chaplin Museum L i f e s t y l e FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016 A picture shows a room of the Chaplin’s World museum in Corsier-sur-Vevey, western Charile Chaplin’s hat and stick displayed in a showcase at the Chaplin’s World museum in Switzerland. — AFP photos Corsier-sur-Vevey, western Switzerland. Lights, camera, action! Charlie Chaplin museum springs to life magine moving along the cogs within giant building has been built nearby as a large mock-up trousers and patched shoes he wore in “The Kid”. machinery like Charlie Chaplin in “Modern of a Hollywood studio dedicated to Chaplin’s on- “This is the first time I’ve seen the costume, or the ITimes”, or tumbling inside a cabin teetering on screen work which began around 1914. Visitors can cane or the hat or the shoes,” Michael Chaplin said the edge of a cliff as he did in “Gold Rush”. That will also catch a glimpse of the artist’s humble begin- as he helped unpack the items before the museum be possible when an ambitious, immersive museum nings in London and his spectacular rise to become opening. “I’ve never actually really seen an original showcasing the life and works of the groundbreak- one of the biggest, most influential movie legends one before, so it’s quite moving to see that,” he said. ing filmmaker opens in Switzerland on Sunday. in Hollywood history. In one glass showcase there is the certificate signed Chaplin’s World, 15 years in the planning, will pre- With clips from his iconic films flickering from a by Queen Elizabeth II when Chaplin was knighted in miere in the picturesque village of Corsier-sur-Vevey multitude of screens, visitors can walk down “Easy 1975. on Lake Geneva one day after what would have Street”, visit the barber shop from “The Great And in another is the Oscar he won for the score been the British screen legend’s 127th birthday. Dictator” and the restaurant where he ate his shoe of his film “Limelight”. However, he didn’t win the “He wanted people to remember him. That’s in “The Immigrant”. “What really touched me is how Oscar until 1973, since the film was barred for why he did the films and he did it in such a perfec- they managed to make his films come alive again release in the United States when it first came out in tionist way,” Chaplin’s 62-year-old son Eugene told by inserting clips into decors,” Michael Chaplin said, 1952. The museum project has faced numerous AFP, adding: “I think he would be pleased.” The recalling how his father “was always in movement, stumbling blocks over more than 15 years of drawn- museum is set on the vast estate of Manoir de Ban, and that part of the museum is in total movement, out negotiations. It took seven years to get a build- about 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Lausanne, which is beautiful.” ing permit, and before that organizers had to wait where Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life until Chaplin’s World is also dotted with more than 30 five years to settle a lawsuit brought by a neighbor his death in 1977 at age 88. wax figures created by the Grevin wax museum in worried about the implications of the project. He had moved to Switzerland after being barred Paris. The lifelike figures portray Chaplin as different Eugene Chaplin admitted the transformation of from the United States in the 1950s over suspicions characters, his wife Oona, actors and actresses from Manoir de Ban, where he was born in 1953 and that he had communist sympathies, at the height of his films, friends and people who mattered to him lived until 2008, was difficult and said he had stayed paranoia about Soviet infiltration. On the Swiss like Albert Einstein, as well as artists inspired by his away while the work was being done. “I didn’t want Riviera overlooking the lake with a view of the Alps work like Michael Jackson and Woody Allen. “We to see the bulldozers digging into the grass. It’s a lot in the distance, the large manor where Chaplin lived worked very hard to make a museum that would be of memories,” he said. But he was thrilled with the with his wife Oona and their eight children forms as true as possible,” curator Yves Durand said ahead final result. “This is the perfect place to show my half of the museum, retracing the filmmaker’s pri- of the opening. “We are there to tell a story about a father’s films, to remember his work, and his life, in a vate life. real life that was Charlie Chaplin’s life, and about a place where he was so happy,” he said. — AFP fictional life that was his work,” he said. ‘Like Downton Abbey’ Chaplin’s 70-year-old son Michael recalled what Bowler hat and cane An Oscar trophy in a show- it was like living in the mansion, with around a In a narrow room resembling a Swiss bank vault, case at the Chaplin’s dozen servants. “It was like Downton Abbey, on a one can find some of the iconic objects associated World museum in Corsier- reduced level. For a child it was wonderful,” he told with Chaplin’s work, including his bowler hat and sur-Vevey, western AFP, recalling all the great hiding places. A separate cane of his Little Tramp persona, and the ripped Switzerland. Monumental Basquiat could fetch $40m at May auction This undated photo provided by Christie’s monumental 1982 self-portrait of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat shows Jean-Michel (zhahn mee-SHEHL’ BAH’-skee-aht) as a fiery demonic figure is Basquiat’s self-por- coming to auction where it could bring $40 million. Christie’s says A trait “Untitled, 1982” “Untitled, 1982” has appeared in every major Basquiat retrospective. The that has appeared in work features splashes of explosive colors. It will be offered May 10 at every major Basquiat Christie’s post-war and contemporary art sale. retrospective. — AP Basquiat painted it at age 22 in Modena, Italy, while at the prime of his career. Brett Gorvy is head of post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s. He says he’s confident the work will fetch one of the highest prices for the artist at auction. The auction record for a Basquiat is $48.8 million for his “Dustheads,” achieved at Christie’s in 2013. Basquiat died of a drug overdose in 1988 at age 27. — AP.
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