A Woman of Paris
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Synopsis
Remarkable for its psychological nuance and its boldly modern perspective on an independent woman’s search for fulfillment, Charlie Chaplin’s long-overlooked silent masterpiece A Woman of Paris is a revelation. Chaplin confounded 1923 audiences with this unexpected foray into serious drama, and by ceding the spotlight to his longtime screen partner Edna Purviance. She is captivating as the vivacious Marie St. Clair, a “woman of fate” who leaves behind her small-minded village for the glamour of Paris, where she finds herself at the center of a Jazz Age whirl of champagne soirees, luxurious pleasure-seeking, romance, and tragedy. Putting aside his Little Tramp persona, Chaplin’s second feature proved that, beyond being a comic genius, he was an artist of immense sensitivity and human understanding.
Picture 8/10
The Criterion Collection finally gets around to releasing the 1976 version of Charles Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris, presenting the film on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation comes from a new 4K restoration sourced from a scan of a 35mm full-frame duplicate negative.
Though it's a bit disappointing that Criterion didn’t opt for a full 4K edition (not entirely surprising, but they’ve otherwise shown a strong commitment to the format), this high-def presentation holds up well on its own. The restoration work has cleaned the film up beautifully, with damage, despite the film’s age, remaining minimal, limited to a few marks, fine scratches, and some general wear. The image remains stable throughout, and motion looks smooth.
The encode is also strong: very clean, with no obvious artifacts during playback. Black levels and grayscale are respectable, though I found the whites to be a touch intense. Not blooming, exactly, but details sometimes get lost in them, and faces can appear a bit flat, though that may be inherent to the original materials.
All in all, it’s a rather solid presentation.
Audio 8/10
A silent film, A Woman of Paris is accompanied by the score Chaplin composed for the 1976 rerelease, presented here in lossless PCM mono. The track sounds sharp and clean, with solid fidelity and a surprisingly wide range. There’s no noticeable distortion or damage to speak of. All in, it's a nice sounding musical score.
Extras 7/10
Criterion includes a number of supplements, though most are recycled from previous editions. Among them is an introduction by David Robinson, who offers background on the film’s production and inspirations—particularly the socialite Peggy Hopkins Joyce, with whom Chaplin was briefly involved. There’s also the 2003 documentary Chaplin Today: A Woman of Paris, running 26 minutes. Like other entries in the Chaplin Today series, it pulls together a mix of interviews, some of which feel a bit random (Liv Ullmann appears here) while covering the film’s production in detail. There’s discussion of United Artists, newly founded at the time, with A Woman of Paris being Chaplin’s first film produced under its banner. The documentary also touches on issues with censorship and the film’s commercial failure, along with its later rerelease.
Criterion does commission one new feature for their release, a new video essay: A Serious Drama by Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance. Running 23 minutes, it covers much of the same ground as the documentary and other supplements, but expands on certain aspects, including the film’s construction, use of visual motifs and props, and how its narrative style compares to later works like Monsieur Verdoux. It even includes a simulated demonstration of how one particular effect was pulled off, something only described in the other features.
From the French release, Criterion ports over a 9-minute video essay by Arnold Lozano, which draws from archival materials in the Chaplin estate—paper clippings, photos, footage, and more—to outline the film’s production and release. Additional archival items include three minutes of staged footage commemorating the founding of United Artists (filmed the day after the actual document signing), and a four-minute audio clip from a 1964 interview with cinematographer Roland Totheroh, who shares anecdotes from the shoot and talks about how Chaplin first met the film’s star, Edna Purviance.
Also included is a 16-minute presentation of deleted scenes. As detailed elsewhere in the supplements, Chaplin re-edited the film in 1976, and that version—his preferred cut—is the one presented here. The deleted scenes comprise the material removed during that re-edit. Each one is bookended with footage from the final film to provide context, with the cut segments marked by a “prohibited” symbol (a circle with a slash) to make it easy to identify. A few scenes arguably could have stayed in, such as an extended moment before the father’s death is discovered, or the film’s final moments, but most of the cuts are quick trims or of repeated shots (like multiple shots of truffles being served), clearly made to tighten pacing and improve flow. Though I would’ve preferred the option to view the original cut in full, it’s good that the material is here for posterity.
Speaking of alternate versions, Criterion also includes an alternate score composed by Timothy Brock (based on unused material written by Chaplin) and recorded in 2010, presented in PCM stereo. Curiously, it’s not offered as an alternate audio track for the main feature but instead appears as its own separate supplement. Even more curious, it runs 89 minutes, longer than the feature itself. I briefly wondered whether this was a hidden presentation of the longer cut, but that’s not the case. It’s simply the 1976 version playing at a slightly slower frame rate, which would’ve required speeding up the score to sync it properly as an alternate track with the main presentation. It’s a fine score, though the feature isn’t encoded as well as the main presentation, so it may not be the preferred viewing option.
The disc closes out with two trailers: one for the 1976 rerelease, promoting the film as Chaplin’s nearly forgotten masterpiece, and Janus Films’ 2023 trailer for the new restoration. The release also includes a fold-out poster insert, featuring the cover art on one side and an essay by Pamela Hutchinson on the other. Notes by Timothy Brock on his score are also included.
While there’s not much in the way of new material (and I would have expected a commentary), it’s a solid batch of features. Despite some repetition about the production across them, they collectively provide a strong overview of the film’s production and legacy.
Closing
Often released on home video alongside one of Chaplin’s other overlooked films—1957’s A King in New York—A Woman of Paris finally receives a lovely new edition all to itself. While the supplements aren’t as in-depth as those found on some of Criterion’s other Chaplin releases, the film benefits from a strong new presentation that marks a clear improvement over previous DVD editions.
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