From the mask to the screen

Dressing up is the essence of Carnival, but also of early cinema, whose unforgettable costumes included that of the Tramp, invented by Charlie Chaplin: false moustache, oversized shoes and baggy pants, along with the memory of a lost elegance in his jacket and cane. But this was not Chaplin’s only ‘face’: in The Masquerader (1914) we will catch a ‘behind the scenes’ glimpse of the Tramp’s humour, putting on a female costume; and we then see him as an officer of the soldiers of Seville in Carmen (1916), a tribute to and parody of a contemporary film (1915) by Cecil B. DeMille, who made Bizet’s opera (1875) and Mérimée’s novel (1845) his own. The film will be accompanied by a new musical commentary, assembled precisely starting from Bizet.

Film MASQUERADER - Restored by the Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, the British Film Institute (National Film & Television Archive), and Lobster Films at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2003.
Film CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S BURLESQUE ON CARMEN - Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna and Lobster Films in collaboration with Film Preservation Associates at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2013.

The cine-concert on 22 February will be followed by a cocktail.