Chaplin Echos

Chaplin's influence on later films and filmmakers often goes unnoticed,
but every now and then I catch a glimpse of it.

A few days ago my husband and I picked up a cheap DVD of _Scent
of a Woman_ in WalMart for about the price of a rental. I was already
aware that a variation of "La Violetera" was used as a theme in this
film,
in which Al Pachino plays a rather nasty blind man with a well
concealed
soft spot..I assumed this was just a passing homage to _City Lights_
based
on the fact that two central characters' were blind, but I now realize
that it
goes a bit deeper than that. Director Martin Brest produced _Scent_
though
his own production company, City Light Films, and the score was
composed
by Thomas Newman, the formidable son of Alfred Newman, who conducted
the recording of the score of _City Lights_. Variations of "La
Violetera" are
in fact the *main* theme in _Scent_.

_Scent_ was released in 1992 and won a number of awards, in spite of
stiff competiition from _Unforgiven_, _The Crying Game_, _Howard's
End_,
_The Player_, _Glengary Glen Ross_, etc. That was, incidentlly, the
same
year _Chaplin_ was released.

Connie K.

constance.kuriyama.TakeThisOut@ttu.edu wrote:
> Chaplin's influence on later films and filmmakers often goes unnoticed,
> but every now and then I catch a glimpse of it.
>
> A few days ago my husband and I picked up a cheap DVD of _Scent
> of a Woman_ in WalMart for about the price of a rental. I was already
> aware that a variation of "La Violetera" was used as a theme in this
> film,
> in which Al Pachino plays a rather nasty blind man with a well
> concealed
> soft spot..I assumed this was just a passing homage to _City Lights_
> based
> on the fact that two central characters' were blind, but I now realize
> that it
> goes a bit deeper than that. Director Martin Brest produced _Scent_
> though
> his own production company, City Light Films, and the score was
> composed
> by Thomas Newman, the formidable son of Alfred Newman, who conducted
> the recording of the score of _City Lights_. Variations of "La
> Violetera" are
> in fact the *main* theme in _Scent_.
>
> _Scent_ was released in 1992 and won a number of awards, in spite of
> stiff competiition from _Unforgiven_, _The Crying Game_, _Howard's
> End_,
> _The Player_, _Glengary Glen Ross_, etc. That was, incidentlly, the
> same
> year _Chaplin_ was released.
>
> Connie K.

LA VIOLETERA was also used in ALL NIGHT LONG (1981), the Barbara
Streisand movie for people who hate Barbra Streisand movies. The late
director Jean-Claude Tramont wanted to use an all-Chaplin score, but
the studio--Universal--turned him down.