Paris, Apr 23: Charles Chaplin's last "silent" movie, "Modern Times", will close this year's edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
The both hilariously funny and biting 1936 classic, featuring Chaplin as a tramp at odds with modern society, will be screened using a digital projector, a fledgling technology drawing images from computer memory instead of old-style spools of celluloid.
The restorers of the film, French film firm MK2, said the quality was "quasi equal" to the copy made for the world premiere in New York in 1936. Shot while others were making "talking" movies, Chaplin restricted himself to mere sound effects. MK2, which has acquired world rights to Chaplin's films, said a total 126,000 images were scanned and retouched one by one by the LTC -Scanlab laboratory.

After releasing a digital version of "The Great Dictater" late last year, MK2 next planned a DVD world release in June of "Modern Times", "Limelight" and "The Gold Rush."
Bureau Report