100 years from Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Monello’, screening in Rome with live music

The ‘Monello’ turns a century of life: this year marks the centenary of Charlie Chaplin’s first feature film. ‘The Kid’, an authentic masterpiece of silent cinema that still maintains its artistic value unchanged today. To pay homage to the style and great creative vein of Charlot, who was not only an actor and director of his films, but also an author, screenwriter, producer and composer, the cultural association Orchestra Italiana del Cinema, with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture and in collaboration with Charlie Chaplin Bubbles Incorporates, organizes three events in Rome which include the screening of the film with the live performance of the original soundtrack. The Dutch pianist Maude Nelissen, who worked closely with the latest arranger of Chaplin’s music, Eric James, will arrange and perform the music on the piano, Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and evening in Rome at the Parioli theater. always dedicated to musical accompaniment for silent films: the artist will play the entire score of ‘Il Monello’, in sync with the images, on stage. The soundtrack was composed by Charlie Chaplin at an advanced age in 1971, exactly 50 years after the release of the film. The author had in fact decided to cut some scenes that he considered outdated by time and to give a wider musical breath to the work: he composed eighteen distinct movements himself and entrusted his faithful collaborator Eric James with the task of transcribing them on the staff. ( by Enzo Bonaiuto)