Charlie Chaplin's funny walk still a laugh

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Thirty years after his death, Charlie Chaplin's silly moustache and funny walk are as popular as ever, largely thanks to the restoration of his old movies by the Bologna film archive in Italy and to France's MK2 film company, which has bought up the rights.

Chaplin died 30 years ago this week, December 25, 1977, but the biting burlesque of works such as "The Gold Rush", "The Kid" and his last silent movie "Modern Times" have stood the test of time, wowing film-lovers from Bangladesh to Brazil.

Since 2001, some 2.8 million Chaplin DVDs have been sold worldwide, including 725,000 in Spain, 420,000 in the U.S, 300,000 in Britain and France and 100,000 in Brazil.

Yet in the late 1990s, Chaplin had all but slipped off the movie map. Copies of his...