The movie phenomenon of 2003 is that the artist who is currently getting most consistent media attention is not Madonna or Nicole Kidman, but Charles Chaplin - even though he died a quarter of a century ago, and made his last appearance in his famous character of The Little Tramp as long ago as 1936. “Why now?” asked the bewildered David Thomson in The Independent on Sunday; and answered his own question: “The answer is impressive: for Chaplin simply persists; his sheer fame urges itself before us”.

It hasn’t always been so: in the last quarter of the 20th century Chaplin was definitely out of fashion with British critics and (luckily for everyone) totally ignored by prolix film “academics”.

Suddenly all that has changed. The final gala show at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival was Chaplin’s 1936 Modern Times in a superb digital restoration – and the unanimous opinion was that this was without challenge the best film in the entire festival. The British Film Institute is in process of establishing a Chaplin Foundation, under the chairmanship of Lord Attenborough, to coordinate national archival resources and encourage study and research. The National Film Theatre is launching the re-issue of his masterpiece of political satire The Great Dictator. The National Film and Television Archive is in partnership with the Cineteca di Bologna to restore his earliest shorts, produced for the Keystone company. A special supplement to Variety is to be followed by a special issue of Sight and Sound. In November the London Philharmonic Orchestra will present a festival of Chaplin films with live music, under the baton of Carl Davis, who has composed new scores for those films for which Chaplin himself had not already written music.

Abroad, the Progetto Chaplin of the Cineteca di Bologna is in process of restoring all the films to pristine state; and will make available on the internet the vast Chaplin archive of paper documents.

Realistically and predictably the ultimate impulse for the rediscovery of Chaplin is commercial. The enterprising French producer-distributor Marin Karmitz acquired distribution rights to the Chaplin library through his company MK2. MK2 are distributing theatrically all the films made after 1918, while Warner Home Video will distribute a superb set of 12 DVD’s skilfully put together by a dedicated MK2 team. The “bonus” items on these include hitherto unseen treasures from the Chaplin vaults, the family’s home movies, rare news films, and such unknown archival treasures as My Boy, starring Jackie Coogan, Chaplin’s co-star in The Kid. Every DVD includes a new documentary, in which contemporary film-makers discuss Chaplin’s impact .

In addition to these the British Film Institute is issuing a DVD of the short films which Chaplin made in his year with the Essanay Company in 1915. (see speacila offer from Movie mail in news section). The coming year promises a feast for Chaplin enthusiasts and a revelation for the rest.