Stars: Charlie Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Jackie Coogan, Edna Purviance, Claire Bloom

Summary: Includes: 'Circus', City Lights', 'Gold Rush', 'The Great Dictator', 'Limelight', 'Modern Times', 'The Kid', 'Monsieur Verdoux', 'A Woman Of Paris' and 'A King In New York' plus a documentary on Charlie Chaplin by Richard Schickel.

A boxset containing ten of Chaplin's acclaimed films:
THE KID (1921) - Stars charlie as the Tramp who brings up an abandoned baby only to lose the boy to his mother.
A WOMAN OF PARIS (1923) - A Woman of Paris is the only film Charles Chaplin directed that he did not appear in (apart from a cameo). An effective drama about a simple girl from the country who goes to the city and becomes the mistress of a wealthy man.
THE GOLD RUSH (1925) - Chaplin stars as the Tramp who moves to the Klondike during the goldrush and sets about trying to find his fortune.
THE CIRCUS (1928) - Chaplin stars as the Tramp who, on the run from the police, joins a circus and ends up falling for a beautiful co-worker.
CITY LIGHTS (1931) - A blind girl is restored to sight with the help of someone that she believes is a rich benefactor - but is, in fact, the Tramp; who has fallen in love with her.
MODERN TIMES (1936) - Chaplin's last silent film. A production-line worker falls victim to a ongoing attempts to automate an assembly line. Following a series of mishaps, the unfortunate fellow finally finds happiness wih a street waif.
THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) - Chaplin's first talkie. In this classic film, Chaplin plays two parts; a simple Jewish barber and a dictator (who bears an uncanning resemblance to Adolf Hitler). The barber (who bears a striking resemblance to the dictator) is persecuted for his beliefs but then gets mistaken for the dictator and is given the opportunity to make a speech to the people (at which point Chaplin takes over and addresses the audience directly in a powerful and emotive address).
MONSIEUR VERDOUX (1947) - A black comedy and a departure for Chaplin; a dapper bank worker marries rich women and then murders them so that he can support his real family.
LIMELIGHT (1952) - A once-great music hall comedian who is now down on his luck is inspired by his love for a young ballerina to one last triumphant hurrah.
A KING IN NEW YORK (1957) - Chaplin's last starring feature film. Chaplin plays a penniless European king who comes to New York to start a new life but finds he cannot stand the shallowness of american society and is forced to leave.

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David Lean's wintry adaptation of Boris Pasternak's melodramatic Russian Revolution romance, Doctor Zhivago, is a masterpiece of epic filmmaking, but one that risks leaving the viewer cold. Though none of the film was shot in the then USSR, Lean's assured technique nevertheless illuminates the breathtaking backgrounds magnificently: from the snowy wastes of the Urals to the strife-torn streets of Moscow, Lean stages a series of wonderful set-pieces showing war, revolution and its terrible aftermath. The problem lies in the foreground. Omar Sharif's entirely passive Zhivago is, we are told, a romantic poet of great sensitivity who internalises all his emotions and expresses them in verse. The trouble is the audience never gets to see a line of his poems, not even the centrally important "Lara" cycle. Thus Zhivago at the end of the picture is as much an emotional blank to us as he was at the beginning. His affair with the idealised beauty that is Julie Christie's Lara is also taken for granted by the filmmakers rather than set up in any convincing way, their mutual attraction remaining a mystery that creates a vacuum at the core of the picture. Given that none of the central characters with the exception of Rod Steiger's fire-breathing lecher Komarovsky ever give way to strong emotions, the romantic heart of the film remains oddly frigid. Matters are not helped by composer Maurice Jarre's incessant "Lara's Theme", which many will find teeth-grindingly irritating. Still, any David Lean epic, even a flawed one, is always going to be a first-class cinematic experience, and Zhivagois assuredly that.

On the DVD:A stunning anamorphic widescreen print is the ideal way to appreciate David Lean's craftsmanship and this movie's glorious, wintry cinematography. Maurice Jarre's "Lara's Theme" and the rest of his patchwork score can be heard in a music-only track, while Omar Sharif is joined by Lean's widow Sandra and Rod Steiger for an intermittent commentary. The second bonus disc contains a good hour-long making-of documentary plus 10 shorter contemporary documentaries giving various insights into the location shooting and the cast and crew. But it's the sheer beauty of the picture that will astonish and make this disc forever treasurable. --Mark Walker

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Documentary - 1. THE TRAMP AND THE DICTATOR, 2. THE PRODUCTION FILMED IN COLOUR, CHARLIE THE BARBER - unused scene from the 1919 short SUNNYSIDE, Scene from MONSIEUR VERDOUX, PosterGallery, Documentary - 1. CHAPLIN TODAY - MODERN TIMES, 2. BEHIND THE SCENES IN
Year:	1921
Release Date:	September 22, 2003
Runtime:	724 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 034172
Keywords:	Chaplin, Great, Charlie, Gold, New, City, Paris, Woman, Times, Art, King, Kid, Rush, Comedy, Life, Circus, Box, Lights, General, York, Dictator, Set, Limelight, Modern, Monsieur, Charles, Complete, Verdoux
Genre:	Comedy