Functions

Venue

The official dinner, which will follow the first Sports Forum day, will take place at Chaplin’s World, an ambitious large-scale museum dedicated to the life and work of Charlie Chaplin, the comedic genius, all-time great filmmaker, and composer.

The museum is located at the Champ de Ban Estate Manor, a 35-acre estate overlooking Lake Geneva in Corsier-sur-Vevey, where the artist lived from 1953 until his death in 1977, with his fourth wife Oona O’Neill, Lady Chaplin, and their eight children.

At Chaplin’s World, visitors get to meet Charlie Chaplin, the family man, in the beautiful rooms of the Manoir full of furnishings and personal belongings. They embark on a singular journey through the sets of his greatest films at a Hollywood-style studio and get to top off their tour with a peaceful walk in the gardens.

A visit of the Manoir is scheduled before the dinner. A cocktail buffet will then be served inside the museum. While dining, guests will be able to immerse themselves in the spectacular world of silent film and rediscover Chaplin's legendary motion pictures.

During your visit of the Manoir, you will have the chance to visit AN EXCLUSIVE EXHIBITION – THE FREAK, THE STORY OF A FILM.
Created exclusively for Chaplin’s World, the world’s only museum dedicated to Charlie Chaplin, this temporary exhibition is the work of the Cineteca Di Bologna.

A NEVER-ENDING STORY
Charlie Chaplin’s The Freak has been unwittingly misrepresented for half a century. It has long been considered a script on which he laboured passionately and persistently for the last decade of his life, and that only his advancing age prevented him from bringing the project to the screen. It was not quite like this. To all intents and purposes, The Freak is considered as Chaplin’s artistic testament.

In 2016, the Chaplin Office acquired Jerry Epstein’s personal and professional archive, which unveiled an extraordinary discovery: Chaplin was in fact scheduled to begin shooting The Freak, which can therefore be seen almost as a full-fledged film as opposed to an unfinished project.

Today, as the Chaplin family allows this trove of unseen material to be shared for the first time, a new exhibition can finally reveal all the secrets hidden in one of Chaplin’s most fascinating stories, one that was written on site at the Manoir de Ban.

Borrowing many themes, ideas, and phrases from his previous films and from his childhood, Chaplin produced a new script for The Freak filled with his trademark comedic touches.

The story resonates as a microcosm of humanity, a condemnation of hostility and mistrust toward the other, and a display of the capacity to escape from adverse situations. Had it reached fruition, The Freak would have been a mischievous satire on the power of money and business, the influence of publicity, and the rise of religious fanaticism and its appropriation by the media. Half a century after he created The Tramp, Chaplin’s primary interest still lays in the study of human nature.

As the script never made it to production and remained buried in the archives all these years, it could be said that the beauty of this final work stems from the fact that it is unfinished, begging the question: What could it have been had it seen the light of day?

Designed around five sections – “From Tramp to Freak,” “Sarapha!” “Making the film,” “London Calling,” and “A Family Affair” – and a projection, the exhibition will feature a selection of over 3,000 archive documents, 1,000 pages of annotated stories, ideas, and drafts, over 100 original artist’s sketches, photographs, film clips, a number of previously-unseen pre-production files, home movies, personal letters, audio recordings, and a recording – long thought to be lost – of Chaplin reading extracts from the script and playing the piano.

The museum is located approximately 25 km from Lausanne. Transportation by bus from the Mövenpick hotel to Chaplin’s World and back will be arranged.

Venue

As is now tradition, the conclusion of the Sports Forum proceedings will be followed by a Farewell Cocktail at the FEI Headquarters where delegates can mingle freely enjoying local specialties in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.