Day 4 - Charlie Chaplin doc, Irish cast & crew of Intermission.

Edinburgh. Saturday, 16 August

A Proper Charlie

The son and daughter of Charlie Chaplin got the ball rolling this morning at a press conference to promote Charlie: The Life and Times of Charles Chaplin, a new documentary about their father.

Director Richard Schnickel was also there to talk about what he descibed as ‘the comedic and kinetic genius’ of the moustach-oed man. Daughter Geraldine thanked Richard for his loving portrayal of a man who received more than his fair share of bad press during his life-time (after several disastrous marriages, claims that he was bisexual, dodgy political leanings etc).

Geraldine, who is an actress herself, added that compared to Richard Attenborough’s film Charlie, about her famous father (the 1992 film in which she starred alongside Richard Downey Jnr), Schnickel’s film is far more accurate.

"Its fair to say that my father was someone who was absolutely compelled to entertain. He really did need an audience. But in Chaplin, there was this picture of a gloomy, tortured, moody man. That’s just not how I remember him."

Geraldine’s long-term partner Carlos Saura, the Spanish film director, was in the room too but keeping a low profile at the back.

Sum Of All Parts

Stepping into the limelight directly afterwards were some of the cast of Intermission accompanied by the film’s director, Irishman John Crawley. Colm Meaney, who has enjoyed a pretty succesful career in film and TV on both sides of the pond (he might be better known by fans of Star Trek as Chief O’Brien) didn’t have much to say at the press conference, only really coming to life to dig his co-star Cillian Murphy playfully in the ribs every couple of minutes or light up yet another fag.

Cillian himself seemed shy and a little lost for words. The audience of journalists couldn’t help but laugh when life began to imitate art and he said, stumbling, "Yeah, I guess my character is kind of a typical Irish boy. He’s, you know, not exactly, well, not very good with words. I suppose you could say, it’s like he’s bad at expressing himself. A bit , er, inarticulate."

(We’ll forgive you, Cillian – even if you don’t say much you are still very nice to look at.)

First time director John Crowley said making the film was a bit of a ‘scheduling nightmare’ due to it’s huge ensemble of actors. Other stars include Colin Farrell (Phone Booth, The Recruit), Shirley Henderson (in town at the moment promoting Wilbur) and Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting, Gosford Park).

"Luckily I enjoy working within really tight parameters!, Crowley laughed. "It was a bit of a baptism by fire for me. Colin (Farrell) came to Dublin to make the film but we had to do all his scenes in the first week. That meant car chases, punch-outs, shoot-outs - the whole lot."

Just what exactly beautiful bad-boy Colin could possibly have had to do today that was more important than meeting and greeting his female fans in Edinburgh, we can only wonder. (something about Alexander the Great, a new Oliver Stone film or something.)

Don’t care. Didn’t want to meet him anyway.

Until tomorrow,

Claire x