Film Information

Playing a tramp struggling to survive in a modern industrial society, Charlie Chaplin created with MODERN TIMES, one of the most elaborate cinematic critiques of the effects of mass production on 20th century life. With his usual charm and bad luck, Charlie Chaplin's most famous character The Tramp, executes some of his most famous slapstick routines around massive/glorified machines, accidentally ends up in the middle of a communist rally, and falls in love with a street waif played by Chaplin's then real-life partner Paulette Goddard.

In 2001, the Chaplin heirs concluded a search for a worldwide partner by signing with international film producer, sales agent and distributor MK2. To celebrate their new partnership, the Chaplin family and MK2 have launched a high-definition digital restoration of "Modern Times", a first for a Chaplin film. Unveiled at the closing night of the 2003 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the digital restoration of Modern Times used Scanlab's state-of-the-art digital system, which was also used for the digital postproduction in 2K-resolution films such as Irréversible, Demonlover, The Pianist, and Swimming Pool.

The HD scan of the internegative is carried out on a Spirit telecine and recorded on a Specter machine which reads in real time the digitized film on HD hard disks and screens it on a DLP digital movie projector. During the digitization process, color corrections can be made. For a restoration of the film in black and white, the aim is to regenerate the original contrast that wear and tear has diminished over the course of time.

Automatic scratch reduction filters are used to eliminate large and small dust particles and defects due to voluntary and involuntary deterioration (e. g. Customs stamps). Every frame of every reel is treated on a graphics palette. Certain shots are also stabilized, one image at a time, to restore the original stability. For Modern Times, a total of 126,000 frames were treated.

When the grader-restorer has had his work approved by the producers, the digital files are sent to the film recording ArriLaser system. This recorder comprises 3 lasers (red, green, blue) which print an internegative. In the case of "Modern Times", only the blue laser is used to print a 2234 black-and-white internegative. This is then given to the lab, LTC which handles the photochemical work and makes new prints for theatrical release.