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.
“James - the Rolls-Royce. We'll burn up the town!”
FILM CLUB SCREENING #3
INITIAL REVIEW
Yet again I had hard drive issue and we couldn’t screen Chungking Express because the subtitle file was corrupt. So, we decided to screen City Lights on YouTube. People were initially hesitant but everyone enjoyed it by the end and there was a consistent amount of laughing.
The film is excellently directed, the score is gleeful, the story is simple and effective and Charlie Chaplin is so expressive and hilarious, I’m glad this was my introduction to his work. My few gripes with the film are some jokes that become tired after awhile, namely the whistle scene amongst others.
Fun Fact:
Charles Chaplin re-shot the scene in which the Little Tramp buys a flower from the blind flower-girl 342 times.
97/100
Would Recommend!
“The sober dawn awakens a different man.”
Best: Excellent score, Charlie Chaplin, humor, story, character work
Worst: 2 jokes that go on for too long
Notable Bit: (at around 1 min) At the beginning of the film, a town official and a woman dedicating the statue can be heard uttering nondescript words by way of a paper reed mouth instrument. The sounds were made by Charles Chaplin and this was the first time that his voice was heard on film.
9.6/10
Letterboxd Season Challenge 2018-19
Week 11: November 18th-24th
Silent Comedy Week
Beautiful and whimsical, absurd and hilarious and probably the high mark of Chaplin's silent films, a timeless romp with the tramp's trademark heart and impeccable comedic timing, choreography, and music.
This is just the most beautiful thing. THE MoSt B e a U T I f u l thing and ill keep repeting this after years. Chaplin u fucking genious
Masterpiece
La primera gran película de Charlie Chaplin, sin su existencia la comedia como hoy día la conocemos podría jamás haberse deslindado del estilo de Buster Keaton.
La adición del drama, una historia, permitieron no solo reír por reír, sino hilar mediante la el desarrollo de personajes que el público pudiese sentirse identificado con el mismo haciéndolo mucho más poderoso. Tal vez no se inventó nada nuevo pero le añadió al género la profundidad para ser tomado en serio.
Watched on Netflix DVD
Don’t have much opinion on this. It was interesting, but I don’t think I would ever rewatch it.
This was fun, even better than most comedies nowadays.
letterboxd.com/elnavi/list/the-letterboxd-season-challenge-2018-19/
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