CHARLIE'S ANGLES NEW DVDS EXPOSE THE MANY FACETS OF CHAPLIN'S GENIUS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Geraldine Chaplin felt like she knew her father pretty well until she watched a new documentary about his life, ``Charlie: The Life and Times of Charlie Chaplin,'' which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

She had seen all his movies and she had a lifetime of memories of her dad performing pratfalls to the delight of his children. But she had never put two and two together and realized how the great Chaplin was depending upon his kids' laughter and approval.

``He was always acting out,'' says the 56-year-old Chaplin, an actress who has fashioned a remarkable career of her own. ``In the documentary, you see my mother's home movies where daddy's doing magic tricks or tripping down the path or pretending to be Napoleon. And then you see him doing the exact same bits in his early films.

``And there was something so touching about that,'' she continues. ``I always knew my father loved to perform. But I never knew it was such a need. And as he grew older, his audience had been reduced to his kids.'' Chaplin lets out a deep sigh. ``I tell you, at Cannes, when the movie was finished, a lot of people were crying.''

Discovering Charlie Chaplin is one of the greatest pleasures a movie lover can have. And while the average person's revelations might not be as profound or personal as the insights recently gathered by his daughter, this year is likely to bring many new converts into the fold - people who see Chaplin's Tramp for the first time and realize what the fuss is all about.

Arriving in stores Tuesday is the first wave of Warner Home Video's Chaplin collection, a series of DVDs designed to dazzle the faithful but, more importantly, to initiate the newcomers. Because of squabbling among Chaplin's eight children, the movies have been pretty much out of circulation for a number of years. What was available wasn't the best quality, either. Until Warner came along, though, none of the heirs could agree how to proceed.

``There was the side of the family that were the purists and practically only wanted the films seen in cathedrals with everyone on their knees,'' Geraldine says. ``Then there (are) others like myself who want to see him everywhere, including the Marks & Spencer underwear. We're still fighting like cats and dogs, but at least now the movies are out there.''

Clearly marvelous

The first four to arrive are digitally remastered versions of ``The Gold Rush'' (1925), ``Modern Times'' (1936), ``The Great Dictator'' (1940) and ``Limelight'' (1952). The clarity of the picture will astonish anyone accustomed to seeing Chaplin cavort in scratchy, faded transfers. These DVDs - each packaged in two-disc sets supplemented by generous extras - make Chaplin into a living figure again and demonstrate why he is one of the indisputable geniuses of cinema's first century.

``You look at the enormity of the life he had to lead,'' says film historian Richard Schickel, who wrote and directed ``Charlie,'' a Chaplin documentary currently playing the film festival circuit. ``He wasn't just a guy making movies, he was a world-class celebrity without parallel. It was a life that, even today, is almost unimaginable to try to live. And yet he kept making these wonderful films.

``Even movies that are not total successes like 'Modern Times,' still have these breathtaking sequences in their comic inventiveness and comic intelligence,'' Schickel adds. ``Or in the more ignored silent films like 'Shoulder Arms' and 'The Immigrant,' you see the ability to create these wonderfully inventive comic lines that just extend on and on and on. And you begin to say, 'He was a master of the medium.' ''

Schickel had no problem finding people who agreed with him on that point, interviewing modern masters like Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Milos Forman for his movie. Young Hollywood is represented as well; Robert Downey Jr., who played Chaplin in Richard Attenborough's biopic, expresses his appreciation, while Johnny Depp talks of the difficulty of performing Chaplin's famous ``dance of the rolls'' in ``Benny & Joon.''

In fact, mention Chaplin to just about anyone who knows an iota about film and you'll be greeted with an enthusiasm that few subjects can rival. It's no accident that Chaplin received the longest standing ovation in Academy Awards history when he returned to the United States in 1972 to collect an honorary Oscar. The later films may be flawed, but his Tramp character remains the embodiment of humanity's unconquerable spirit, a character both abstract and universal that to this day towers as one of the most recognizable icons in movie history.

An American Everyman

``The Tramp is the first quintessential American character on the screen,'' says Dustin Hoffman, who introduced a recent Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra screening of Chaplin's greatest film, ``City Lights.'' ``At the time, this country was full of 'tramps,' people who came to America because other countries didn't want them. These people had an energy and an indomitable spirit, and you see that in Chaplin's character. It's an amazing achievement, particularly coming from someone who was an immigrant himself.''

``He was not only the most famous actor in the whole world, he was the most loved,'' Geraldine Chaplin says. ``When I started my career, I didn't hear anything like, 'Oh, she got that part because she's Charlie Chaplin's daughter.' Everyone felt that Charlie Chaplin was their brother, and so they wanted their niece to be good. I was surrounded in a cocoon of love.''

The question is: Will today's audiences feel the love? Warner Home Video has made a mint off of classic titles like ``The Wizard of Oz,'' ``Casablanca'' (a two-disc 60th anniversary edition arrives in August) and ``Gone With the Wind,'' but those are movies that have benefited from being television perennials. Chaplin's movies, meanwhile, have been largely absent, leaving younger generations to know (vaguely) his image but not his work.

But it isn't a stretch to say that Chaplin's satiric indictment of the mechanization of everyday life in ``Modern Times'' is as fresh and relevant today as it was 67 years ago or that his plea for peace and understanding at the end of ``The Great Dictator'' is every bit as necessary now as when Hitler was in power. The emotions are so basically human that it's hard to imagine anyone not being moved by their power.

``I think he still has absolutely everything to say to audiences today,'' Geraldine Chaplin says. ``I just saw 'The Great Dictator' at the Berlin Film Festival, and it was amazing to see that film 100 yards from Hitler's bunker with a cinema full of 2,000 people. It blew their minds. It's today. The movie could have been made yesterday.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover) Charles in charge 

As a new generation is about to discover, Chaplin's actions spoke louder than words

(2) In ``Moder Times'' (1936), Charlie Chaplin quite literally becomes a cog in in the capitalist machine. A remastered version of the movie arrives Tuesday.