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The first films made by British comedian Charlie Chaplin in California reached France in March 1915. They had an instant appeal for wartime French audiences-- "Charlot," the name under which Chaplin became known in France, quickly became a screen celebrity and a focal point for France's burgeoning film culture. His supporters ranged from members of the working-class through film writers such as Louis Delluc, who wrote the first book on Chaplin as an artist in any language, to members of the French literary avant-garde.
As the "Little Tramp," he seemed to many French intellectuals to embody the spirit of post-World War I society. When he was subjected to criticism from American sources over his private life or political opinions, French intellectuals sprang to his defense. During his acrimonious divorce from Lita Grey in 1927, Surrealists justified his behaviour. And when American reviewers attacked his films Modern Times (1936) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947) for being too left-wing, he was supported by French critics. Modern Times, with its critique of factory conditions, struck a particular chord in France where its arrival coincided with mass factory sit-ins during the "Popular Front" summer of 1936.
Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator (1940), a satire on fascist rulers, due to the French surrender and German occupation was not screened in France until 1945, when it became the most popular film of the year by far. French critics, writers and politicians continued to support Chaplin when he was persecuted by right-wing Americans in the 1940s and early 50s for sexual scandal and supposed pro-communist leanings. Driven into exile in Europe in 1952, Chaplin's career as a filmmaker began to flag--the films he made outside the United States, A King in New York (1957) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), seemed to suggest his decline. But the celebration of his long career that took place at the 25th Cannes Film Festival in 1971 set the stage for the next few years in which Chaplin experienced what he himself described as his "renaissance".
Through the lens of French admiration, Chaplin emerges not just as a cinematic genius, but as a symbol of resilience, rebellion, and artistic reinvention.
