WORLD
CHARLIE CHAPLIN FILM FESTIVAL PLANNED FOR KERRY
Baku, September 15 (AZERTAC). A comedy film festival dedicated to Charlie Chaplin the comic actor who lifted people`s spirits after the first World War and the Great Depression, is being planned for Waterville, Co Kerry, with the help of the Chaplin family, according to Irish times
The actor – whose motto was “life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in a long shot” – loved the seaside golf and fishing village and spent every summer with his family there for almost 40 years.
The Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival will get under way in August next year but planning is already advanced.
Josephine Chaplin, daughter of the actor and patron of the festival, told The Irish Times this weekend: “A Waterville film festival is a special dream of mine. The village of Waterville I remember was a magical oasis beside the ocean surrounded by lakes and magnificent mountains. It was held in particular affection by my father and my mother and indeed all our family who spent many holidays there.”
The festival she was helping to establish would grow annually to international status, she said.
A bronze statue of Charlie Chaplin overlooking the seafront in Waterville is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area, with bus loads stopping at the statue throughout the summer.