The Chaplin project

Chaplin’s Universal Legacy

The Chaplin Project’s is the rediscovery, restoration and promotion of the entire life’s work of one the few filmmakers with truly universal appeal. According to his heirs’ wishes, for some time now the Bologna Cineteca has become the main home for Charlie Chaplin’s legacy. In addition to storing and restoring all of the films made by Chaplin at the L’Immagine Ritrovata workshop, the Renzo Renzi Library also houses his archive of papers and photographs, which has been entirely catalogued and digitized.

Documenting the Chaplin World

The archive contains Chaplin’s entire professional and personal records, from family documents dating from the late 1800s to his debut on the English music-hall stage, up to the last days of his life in Switzerland. Manuscripts, screenplays, theatre programs, contracts, correspondence with intellectuals and artists, sketches, photographs: almost a century of paper through which the artistic figure of Charlie Chaplin, his working methods and ways of thinking, can be reconstructed.

Consulting, Visiting, Studying

There are two ways to consult this vast mass of material. The online catalogue and the dedicated website – http://www.charliechaplinarchive.org - give access to all the documents’ index cards and previews of the originals. Alternatively the archive in its entirety can be searched at the Bologna Cineteca’s Renzo Renzi Library, after making an appointment with the Chaplin Project staff.