Charlie Chaplin Competition: Win Artificial Eye Blu-rays and DVDs!
- It must be that time of year already: ol’ Charlie’s 1918–1957 films are re-released yet again
- But there’s a big difference: this time all of his features are making their debut in HD
As explained in the Charlie Chaplin Collectors’ Guide Part 7, the distribution rights for his First National/United Artists/Attica-Archway output come up for renewal in different countries on a regular basis. This time it’s the turn of Artificial Eye (home video)/Curzon Film World (theatrical) in the UK. In fact, they’ll be the fourth distributors of his films domestically within the past two decades!
It’s A Dog’s Life for Edna, Scraps and Charlie
LATEST: A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) is now available on Blu-ray!
Each film will be issued separately on Blu-ray and DVD. An educated guess says that these new releases will be more-or-less rehashed versions of the definitive mk2/Warner DVDs, as per the output of the previous distributor, Park Circus, but you never know: Artificial Eye may yet surprise us.
One piece of exciting news is that this marks the worldwide HD/Blu-ray début of The Chaplin Revue (a 1959 re-edited re-release of A Dog’s Life, Shoulder Arms and The Pilgrim), alongside the rest of the First National Shorts (1918–1923) in HD. Of course they’ll still only be the ‘Daddy’ versions but that’s another story. This will also make the UK only the second country in the world, after Denmark, to release all of Chaplin’s features on Blu-ray. Up until now, A Woman of Paris, Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight and A King in New York have been unavailable here in HD. Here’s the updated release schedule; several dates have been pushed back from those originally announced in April:
- 10th August 2015: The Circus (1928)
- 24th August 2015: City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940)
- 14th September 2015: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925)
- 28th September 2015: Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), The Chaplin Revue (1959)
- 26th October 2015: A Woman of Paris (1923), Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
- 9th November 2015: The Charlie Chaplin Collection box set | DVD
Artificial Eye’s New UK Chaplin Blu-rays Reviewed
Charlie Chaplin Competition: Win Artificial Eye Blu-rays and DVDs!
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- Charlie Chaplin’s “Daddy” Versions: Copyright or Copywrong? – coming soon; subscribe to the email list to be notified
- Charlie Chaplin Documentary Guide – coming soon
- New UK Charlie Chaplin Discs From Artificial Eye
- Artificial Eye’s New UK Chaplin Blu-rays Reviewed
