Charlie Chaplin speech featured in work by Saint John musician
The estate of Charlie Chaplin has given a Saint John musician permission to use one of the film great's scenes in The Great Dictator in a project.
Arthur Basque was injured in France during the Second World War when he came under fire from German heavy guns. Basque suffered shell-shock and that inspired his son, musician and producer Curtis Basque, to record an album with an anti-war theme.
In putting together the reprise of the cut Requiem to close out the album he's been working on for eight years, Basque struck on the idea of using a Chaplin speech from the 1940 anti-war film The Great Dictator.
"It's an anti-war movie and that final speech was just incredible and I wanted a piece of that," said Basque.
In the scene, Chaplin, a Jewish Barber posing as the Dictator Adenoid Hynkel, speaks to a rally of the dictator's followers. He uses the opportunity to make a passionate anti-war speech. At the end, fearing for his girlfriend's life, he speaks directly to her over the public address system, hoping she can somehow hear him. That is the part Basque wanted to use.
Thinking he'd probably never get permission, Basque decided there was no harm in trying. He contacted a company in the United States that helps artists get rights to commercial use of copyrighted material. They contacted the Chaplin estate. The request included a demo of the piece, a quiet and sombre acoustic guitar piece backed by a string section, and a description of the project, why he wanted to do it, and the story of his father's experience.
Much to his surprise, Josephine Chaplin, one of Charlie's daughters, listened to the demo and read his request. She granted permission at no cost.
"I was shocked. She liked it quite a bit," he said. "I was quite blown away to be truthful."
Basque doesn't know why Josephine Chaplin agreed. He suspected the anti-war message is the main reason behind the agreement and that her father was also a musician.
"A lot of people don’t realize Chaplin was a composer himself he wrote a lot of the music for a lot of his films," said Basque.
Basque had to sign contracts which set out exactly how he would use it and any limitations to the use of the piece. He thanked Josephine Chaplin in his album notes. The self-titled album is available as a digital download off Curtis Basque’s website at curtisbasque.net. He's hoping to eventually produce it on vinyl.
