Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. - 1914
ABOUT THE FILM : Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal.
British Film InstituteYear: 1914
Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal.: the first film is which appears Charlie as the beloved little tramp. In this short we see Charlie who's come to watch the "Pushmobile Parade", a car race for children held on Sunday, 11 January 1914 in Venice (California). Realising that the event is being filmed, the little tramp does everything to be directly in front of the camera's lens, and even goes so far as to stand… right in the middle of the track! Despite all the annoyance of the cameraman, who chases him less and less gently, Charlie remains in the spotlight.
This film, with its simplistic storyline, nevertheless marks a genuine comic revolution and the commencement of Chaplin's success, as film orders from Keystone flood in!
Nationality: American
Actor: Charlie Chaplin
Length: 6' 27"
Genre: slapstick
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Producer: Keystone Film Company
Composer: Eric Beheim
Original language: English
A BRIEF HISTORY : Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal.
Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. is a half-reel motion picture, released on 7 February 1914, directed by Henry Lehrman (1886-1946) and produced by Mack Sennett (1880-1960) for Keystone Studios. Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. marks the first screen appearance of Charlie as the little tramp, and enables us to witness the reaction of the audience at the time. In point of fact, the spectators we see in the film aren't actually actors but real people who have come to watch the auto race! They seem at first taken aback by all the clowning around of this little troublemaker, then very much amused. Legend has it that that the film was shot in just 45 minutes.
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was born in London and his parents were music hall entertainers. He began his career very young in vaudeville in England, strongly influenced by the commedia dell'arte. His "music-hall comedy", echoed throughout his filmography, was to mark the beginnings of modern comic films. His career as an actor next brought him to the United States, where he was hired in November 1913 by Mack Sennett, founder of the Keystone Film Company. This Mecca of production was known above all for its slapsticks, burlesque comedies with highly physical performances.
This film is a part of the Keystone Project whose mission is to restore all the films that Chaplin shot for the Keystone Film Company in 1914, the year in which he invented the little tramp. The Cineteca di Bologna (Italy), National BFI Film Archive (Great Britain) and Lobster Films (France) have thus made a complete inventory of all material existing in the private collections and film museums across the world. Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal. was restored from 2 nitrate prints saved by the National BFI Film Archive. Reconstruction and restoration of the film were carried out in their laboratories in London. Digital transfer was handled by the laboratories Immagine Ritrovata of the Cineteca di Bologna. And digital restoration was performed by Lobster Films.
The complete films of Chaplin for Keystone were published as a DVD box set in 2010.
