Richard Schickel's new documentary Charlie chronicles Charles Chaplin's brilliant career as an actor, writer, director, producer, and composer, as well as his controversial and much publicised private life - his love affairsand marriages, his paternity suit scandal and persecution by the FBI, culminating in a self-imposed exile from the United States. With his brilliant observations, rare footage interwoven with scenes from Chaplin's greatest films, and a remarkable series of newly-recorded interviews, Charlie is the definitive overview of Chaplin and his little tramp. Regarded as the world's first superstar, Chaplin from the start was, according to Schickel,  'driven by his relentless ego, by his helpless need for an audience to dominate, to lead. All the tragedies of his life stemmed from those drives and needs.' 

Full of fascinating and insightful interviews with some of the Hollywood elite including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr, three of Chaplin's children, actors and collaborators on his films as well  as biographers and critics including David Thomson and Andrew Sarris. These accounts, combined with rare archival footage and excerpts from Chaplin classics, make Charlie an event not to be missed.

- Variety