City Lights
In this sound-era silent film, a tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower seller.
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- Cast:
- Charlie Chaplin , Virginia Cherrill , Harry Myers , Al Ernest Garcia , Hank Mann , Albert Austin , Eddie Baker
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Reviews
Really Surprised!
Better Late Then Never
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Who knew comedy could be portrayed so damn beautifully? City Lights is made with such a heart of gold that it's hard not to smile throughout its entirety. Just the mannerisms and little individual components each character posses are so so genius and amusing. I didn't necessarily fall head over heals for City Lights, but I certainly appreciated the craftsmanship shown throughout the piece. There's just something oddly charming about Chaplin that I can't quite put my finger on... (Verdict: A-)
Charlie Chaplin's 1931 film is considered one of the most iconic movies of the twentieth century (number 11 on American Film Institutes list of best American movies ever made). The "talkie" movement started in 1928 and older silent movies became almost obsolete, City Lights proved that to be wrong. The way sound is used to amplify movement (even something as simple as walking down stairs) or a situation creates a type of magnificence that only Chaplin can portray. It was pre-code and yet was never risky, even during Chaplin's boxing match they kept it relatively clean.
Well into the beginning of the sound- and "talkie" movies era, Charles Chaplin made another silent movie, though with a musical soundtrack, also written by Chaplin.It was to be his perhaps greatest film of all, though it's hard to put it above both Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Like in others of his masterpieces it's hard if not impossible not to be emotionally moved. Tragedy and comedy is woven together at it's highest level of performance.I won't review the film any more than the above, but would like to make a general statement on the greatest film personality of all times. In 1999 The American Film Institute somehow managed to rank Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Stuart, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, James Cagney and Spencer Tracy above Charlie Chaplin on the List Of Greatest Screen Legends. With all due respect of the nine mentioned, but placing Chaplin as No.10 is a meaningless parody of disgrace. Not only is he in a class of his own, he was perhaps more than anyone else responsible for making their stardom possible.Thank You!
One of my favorites, City of Lights, was a Charlie Chaplin that came out in 1933. Charlie Chaplin plays a broke man who wonders the street with little purpose. That is until he meets a poor blind girl who sells flower. Charlie is immediately mesmerized by the girl and was willing to do anything for her. In order to save her from a large debt, he faces challenges to earn money and gives up a life for himself to make her happy. The entire film not only was full of laughs but also moments of tears. With a heart- warming ending, I highly recommend Charlie Chaplin's City of Lights.