Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Gold Rush’ restored a century after release

CANNES, France (AP) — One hundred years after Charlie Chaplin made dinner rolls dance and ate his shoe like it was a fine meal, “The Gold Rush” has been vividly brought back to life in a new restoration that premiered Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival.

On the opening day of its 78th edition, Cannes debuted a 4K restoration of “The Gold Rush,” one of Chaplin’s most beloved silent masterpieces. The screening, held just before the festival’s official opening ceremony, was part of a new day-one tradition for restored films, festival director Thierry Fremaux said before the screening at Cannes’ Debussy Theatre.

Years in the making, this “Gold Rush” pristinely restores Chaplin’s Tramp to all his downtrodden glory. The 1925 Alaskan frontier comedy may be marking its centenary, but it looks bracingly fresh in the restoration carried out by La Cineteca di Bologna.

The restoration was more complicated than most because it included an extensive search for any missing footage. In 1942, Chaplin edited the film and re-released it with sound effects, music and narration. That version landed two Oscar nominations, but the restoration sought to get as close to the 1925 original as possible.

In “The Gold Rush” Chaplin’s lone prospector ambles through the snowy Alaskan wilds in pursuit less of gold than some food and perhaps companionship. His antic, cliff-dangling struggles make up much of the film’s deft slapstick, but the Little Tramp’s humble, sweet hopes for romance greatly exceed his strike-it-rich ambitions.

L-R: Comedian Charlie Chaplin, Chief Justice Philip Gibson, of the California Supreme Court, and songwriter Irving Berlin arrive at Federal Court in New York on March 31, 1941, to appear as character witnesses in the income tax evasion trial of movie executive Joseph M. Schenck. (AP Photo)

The film’s premiere drew two grandchildren of Chaplin: Kiera Chaplin and Spencer Chaplin.

“What to say about ‘The Gold Rush?’ said Spencer Chaplin. “It was his biggest production to date. He built the set — it was almost like a tourist attraction in LA at the time. He built the mountains.”

The screening in Cannes drew a packed house in one of Cannes’ largest theaters, a crowd that the Chaplin descendants warmly surveyed.

“Our grandfather would be really proud to see this, a hundred years later, to see all you here and interested in seeing the film,” said Kiera Chaplin.

“The Gold Rush” will roll out in theaters worldwide on June 26 in a release organized by mk2 Films.