I consider John Barry’s Oscar-nominated score for Richard Attenborough’s 1992 biopic Chaplin to be his last great work for films. His main theme perfectly captures the tragedy-filled life of the cinema’s first genius, and the original soundtrack really didn’t fully capture the breadth of Barry’s wide-ranging, early-Hollywood score. So enter La-La Land, which restored the entire score (including all of Barry’s many interpolations of Chaplin’s own music) and which very kindly asked me to write the essay for the CD booklet. It was a wonderful opportunity to revisit this terrific score.
