1931 Directed by Charlie Chaplin
City Lights is the first silent film that Charlie Chaplin directed after he established himself with sound accompanied films. The film is about a penniless man who falls in love with a flower girl. The film was a great success and today is deemed a cult classic.
Charlie Chaplin Virginia Cherrill Florence Lee Harry Myers Al Ernest Garcia Hank Mann Albert Austin Eddie Baker Henry Bergman Buster Brodie Jeanne Carpenter Tom Dempsey James Donnelly Ray Erlenborn Robert Graves Charles Hammond Jean Harlow Joseph Herrick Austen Jewell Willie Keeler Robert Parrish John Rand W.C. Robinson Cy Slocum Tony Stabenau Mark Strong Tiny Ward Stanhope Wheatcroft Florence Wix Show All…
A lighthearted comedy about homelessness, suicide, disability, manic depression, substance abuse, handguns, bipolar disorder, drunk driving, robbery, rheumatic fever, and incarceration.
Ladies and gentlemen.....the 1930s!
“You can see now?” “Yes, I can see now.”
Life was hard for the Blind Girl (Virginia Cherrill). Lacking vision was difficult enough without scraping by on the meager earnings from selling flowers on the sidewalk. It was barely enough to pay the rent on her Spartan tenement. Her Grandmother (Florence Lee) was old and frail and could not be a breadwinner, nor did the Great Depression give most people the wherewithal to keep her canary fed and her Grandmother warm. She was daydreamy and not without her limitations, but it was hard not to hope for something better. Yet when confronted with her sightless gaze and simple flower basket, people saw someone blind and poor and alone—someone on whom…
For my 300th film of the year, I decided to check out another Charlie Chaplin film and, once again, I was not disappointed. City Lights is incredibly charming, funny and touching with the kind of heartfelt ending I'll never forget. Brilliant stuff and I really look forward to checking out Modern Times next.
In a time when film industry was making its transition to talkies & silent films were becoming obsolete, Charlie Chaplin's City Lights entered into the theatres as a late example of its era yet in the long run, it didn't just turn out to be the greatest achievement of silent filmmaking but has endured the test of time so well that it still remains the quintessential romantic comedy.
The penultimate silent feature from Charlie Chaplin, City Lights chronicles the adventures of The Little Tramp who falls in love with a beautiful blind girl who sells flowers for a living. His desire to make her life better becomes a possibility when he saves a suicidal, drunken but wealthy man from killing himself…
"Live life! Be brave!"
Charlie Chaplin makes pure cinematic comedy. Silent (or "pantomime") comedies like this deserve an incalculable amount of respect for being able to deliver jokes without the crutch of dialogue. They truly utilize all the tricks available from film.
During the eight decades since City Lights was released, the comedy genre seems to have forgotten how to do this entirely. Modern comedies rely almost exclusively on funny dialogue, and often on improvised dialogue at that, and while I can appreciate the talent behind these types of performances, they utilize only a very small amount film's potential. Jokes have to be told in flat, close-up shots of actors because the unpredictable nature of that sort of comedy demands…
Saw it on Criterion in a video store in California so I decided why not.
Only other Chaplin film I’ve seen is “The Gold Rush” and while it was good, it confirmed that silent film ain’t my thing. Regardless, I decided to check this out because everyone says it’s Chaplin’s best and maybe the best silent film ever made.
So yeah, I liked it a lot. I’m a sucker for something that blends drama and comedy together seamlessly and this is obviously one of those. Lots of scenes that I see myself revisiting in the future just for entertainment. It deals with some heavy subject matter in really interesting ways and when put into a historical context this thing is clearly very significant.
Silent film still isn’t my cup of tea, but this film made me appreciate Chaplin as an entertainer on a whole nother level. Glad I own it.
This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I swear, the boxing scene had me laughing harder than just about anything I've seen. Visual comedy at its best.
That boxing scene was a bit too long, and that's my only gripe with this. Otherwise, it's perfect
City Lights, 1931: An ill-fated but resilient tramp (Charlie Chaplin) falls in love with a sightless flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) on a street-corner in the busy metropolis. Upon learning that she and her grandmother are to be evicted from their home, the tramp undertakes a series of attempts to provide them with the money they need, all of which end in humiliating failure. But after a drunken millionaire (Harry Myers) lavishly rewards him for saving his life, the tramp can change the flower girl's fortune forever. Touching melodrama which encompasses the wit, charm and sentiment that defines Mr. Chaplin. Beautiful.
(Additional note) City Lights was accused of being too sentimental, these comments encouraged Chaplin to tap into what was going on in society. His next direction was Modern Times (1936) which addresses problems of the working man, hierarchy and the Great Depression. #BlogDayAfternoon
For almost the entirety of the runtime of City Lights I was admiring it as a classic but not enthralled emotionally or intellectually. Many older pieces of cinema tend to not click with me. Perhaps this is due to a lack of exposure - I've only really just begun to dig into the old masterpieces - or perhaps I just have poor taste. In any case, the last minute of the film is a true masterclass in how fragments of narrative, be they drama or comedy, can come together to form a cohesive whole.
The direction on the film still holds up, and while a bit messy at times it's important to keep in mind that there's a strong lack…
“Be brave. Face life.“
City Lights deckt - getarnt als leichte Komödie und mit allen Trademarks von Charlie Chaplin gesegnet - ein breites Spektrum an ernsten Themen (Armut, Obdachlosigkeit, Depression und Selbstmord) ab, und schafft es dennoch eine so herzzerreißende, wie romantische Liebesgeschichte zu erzählen.
PS. Wer diesen legendären Boxkampf aus City Lights noch nicht kennt, hat definitiv etwas verpasst.
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