Chaplin Fantasies,….

Chaplin Fantasies

by:Je’Tamme Derouet

   Of the eleven children by Charlie Chaplin, ten survived. Most went on to do some pretty fascinating things which have been well documented over the years. Geraldine going on with her acting career and of course Charles Jr. and Sydney. And still many of the others with they’re various artistic interests. Even some of the grandchildren have gotten into show business.

  One day I was looking at one of the family photos, taken on the estate in Vevey. There they all were,… (Well most of them anyway).  All lined up in a row like little Chaplin ducks. Snow covering the ground, with them all bundled up nice and tight, when I noticed there on the ground a little basket with a baby. I’d seen it many times before, but I’d never looked at it with such intense focus. Then I gasped as I remembered the words in one of the many Chaplin books I’d read, “And the youngest child (Christopher James) was just 15 when his father died”. Suddenly I leapt from my chair! In all my research on Chaplin’s life, I’d forgotten clean about the baby!

  I remembered thinking even back then when I read it, how vulnerable and frightened he his mother Oona must have felt, all alone in that great big house with his father just having passed, having been the center of their world all those years.

   I slumped back into my chair with an overwhelming sinking feeling, as it reminded me of how captured we all were with that picture of John Kennedy Jr.,  standing so bravely at full salute at his father’s funeral when he was about 4 years old. A single iconic image that would reduce anyone to tears. This is the same emotion I felt looking at that little basket and thinking about that baby and the awesome responsibility he must have felt at 15 for his mother, and for his name. Chaplin. 

 Then suddenly I leapt up again and started doing the math. Let’s see, 15, that’s,. And its 2010. Ok When was he born?  1962! Oh my God, he’s my age! Suddenly it brought back those feelings we all had when John Jr. grew up to become such a beautiful and interesting man, and how we all swooned.

(Now those of you ladies whom have secret or not so secret fantasies about Charlie Chaplin will know straight where my delusional head went at this precise moment!)

  I wonder if he’s still around. If so, is he married? Kids? What has he been doing all these years and how come we haven’t heard much?  So I jumped back online and my fingers started flying as I thought, “He’s got to be somewhere”. Again, my delusion still fully intact and full steam ahead.  Not surprisingly I soon uncovered some interesting facts.

  It seems Christopher James Chaplin (born 6 July 1962 in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland) is an actor who appeared in the film Total Eclipse as the character Charles Cros, as well as in other rolls.

  Interesting indeed. But where is he now, specifically?  You’d think if he was an actor, he’d be easier to find. Not so. It took me awhile, but I actually found him!  By all accounts, though he has traveled extensively, he appears to be living very happily in London among people who love him. He is married, loves flying planes and the outdoors, and has an amazing career in music, even lending his sound to some movies along the way. With the few bits I’ve been able to uncover, he appears to shy away from the press.  And looking over the dozen or so of photographs, naturally I couldn’t help drawing comparisons with he and his father. Thin and lean with the same toothy smile and a shy unassuming look in his eyes. His head of thick black hair and good looks.

  But when I saw his picture for the first time on MySpace, (the one of him holding up a camera), I was stunned! So much so, that here’s what I wrote to him about it…

… Fantasy is defined as illusion, or mental image. I spend my life trying to spin words into images. Opening a vein and dripping my soul across the page. Arranging and re arranging like pieces of a puzzle, in desperate attempt to weave my reality into fantasy. With nervous hope that the words alone will carry enough power to make the mental images burst into life, with enough intensity to pull one effortlessly down the page. It is my passion.  But one that often brings much joyous frustration.

    Yet here you are, with but a single still image, powerful enough to write a thousand fantasies, filled with such promise and hope, drawing us into it gently and yet so completely. Begging the question,…

What is on the other side of the camera that gives you such a provocative expression?

   Is it porn or a new puppy? Is it an exciting new beginning, or a wonderfully familiar scene that reminds you of home and the smell of freshly baked cookies? Perhaps there’s a birthday cake!  And a gift with a great big bow! Or a magically intimate encounter for two, in one safe place in time when you’re completely uninhibited and all is possible in the flash of a button.

    In the darkness of night, each of us has our own very unique and very private hungers. So instead of defining it clearly by writing volumes of what it means to me, perhaps it’s better to let others read their own fantasy into it. In the end, I think it’s an image that forces us to keep looking back in vein, hoping beyond hope, that this time, the fantasy that the image promises, will be delivered. Some might even call it Chaplinesque…

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  Christopher James Chaplin:

Now THAT is art! So for all of the above, and oh so much more, I think the photo should be captioned

 “What’s Your Fantasy?”…

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As fans we’ll never get to meet Charlie Chaplin. We can only glean bits of what he must have really been like from his work, his writing,… and from what so many others have written about him. The rest in some measure will forever be a mystery. But we do have his children and grandchildren….

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 And we DO have the littlest Chaplin,… the frightened 15 year old, the baby in the basket, who with his father’s toothy, shy smile, full head of thick black hair and good looks, but with his own talents and flavor, grew up to become the hot sexy new 2010 Chaplin. This talented musician and actor, when it comes to Chaplin fantasies, may well be the one Chaplin that could possibly eclipse his father. After all, he is here now.

 This begs the question, “What’s your Chaplin Fantasy?”

 Thoughts anyone?