CHEER UP, CHARLIE

“I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown,” Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin said. That’s about as loose a statement as the Tramp’s own trousers, considering that Chaplin is one of the most recognizable figures in movie history to this day. This week, Film Forum’s new series, “The Tramp 100,” celebrates the centennial of his first appearance on screen in Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914). Thirteen features span Chaplin’s career, from the boot-gormandizing high jinks in The Gold Rush and Hitler-impersonating in the controversial Great Dictator to the transcendent beauty of City Lights. Shorts programs focus on Chaplin’s time at the Keystone, Essanay, Mutual, and First National studios, where his character was immortalized in countless vignettes. See the icon looking as spiffy as ever in all-new restorations.

Mondays-Sundays, 1 p.m.; Sun., Jan. 5, 5:20 p.m. Starts: Jan. 1. Continues through Jan. 7, 2014