Nearly five decades after Charlie Chaplin’s death, the script for his never-completed final film will be published this weekend, offering a rare look at what might have been the legendary filmmaker’s most ambitious project, The Guardian reported Saturday.
The script, pieced together from drafts, storyboards, and sketches, reveals Chaplin’s plans for the film he had been working on before his death in 1977 at the age of 88.
Titled The Freak, it is a fantasy about “a beautiful creature with wings … a bird with a human body”, as Chaplin wrote of an otherworldly female creature named Sarapha, which has the power to cure illness and bring peace to the world.
The surviving working papers for The Freak are more extensive than for any of Chaplin’s other films. They reveal that he was close to shooting it. They detail everything from scene breakdowns to special effects sessions, including wings for Sarapha. There are also financial projections, minutes of technical meetings and production schedules.
One of the most fascinating aspects of The Freak is the role of Sarapha, which was intended for Chaplin’s teenage daughter, Victoria.
Chaplin himself was planning a cameo as a startled drunk who witnesses Sarapha flying above the Houses of Parliament in London — a scene that would have showcased his trademark comedic touch.
This is the first time the script has been published in English, in its original form. It had appeared only in Italian in 2020, in a limited run by the Cineteca di Bologna, which has catalogued the entire Chaplin Archive.
The Freak will be available for the first time, giving fans and scholars alike a rare insight into Chaplin’s final project.
According to Cecilia Cenciarelli of Cineteca di Bologna, even Chaplin experts were largely unaware of The Freak until recently, with much of the project having been hidden away in the archives.
Among the papers is a casting list for the role of an English professor, who befriends Sarapha after finding her injured on his roof. Robert Vaughn, James Fox, and Richard Chamberlain were all considered for the role. In the script, Sarapha confides in the professor, telling him she hates her wings and fears the world’s reaction to her supernatural abilities.
Arnold Lozano, the manager of the Chaplin estate, described the forthcoming published script as “the first comprehensive presentation of Chaplin’s last, unfinished film project”.
He continued, “Drawn from nearly 3,000 pages of Chaplin’s words, photographs, and designs, this book offers a rare glimpse into one of the most remarkable projects of his 63-year creative life in cinema.”
Source: The Guardian
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
