I am a child of the Sixties, and many of the attitudes I formed were based on essentially special moments, it seems to me. One of my parent's friends opined one evening, stridently, vigourously, something to the effect that because Charlie Chaplin was a Communist everything he ever did was therefore artistically inadmissible. There are times in life where something you hear you instantly know is either completely wrong or right. I knew then that this had to be wrong, even though I had never seen anything more than a snippet of Chaplin's work.
Many of what are considered great films were not shown anywhere, not on TV, certainly not on the big screen, for most of my early life. So it is that in my recent viewing of "City Lights" I saw my first full length Chaplin film. And I was not disappointed.
In this movie there are only a handful of main characters. Chaplin's little tramp is of course prominent, but the key supporting players certainly get a lot of screen time. Among them is the blind flower girl who becomes the center of the tramp's attention, her grandmother, and a very rich and also very boozy benefactor of sorts. The rich man's butler has a significant part. There are many, many players with brief parts.
As far as a plot goes, the tramp meets the blind flower girl and of course he is able over time to appear to her as a wealthy kind-of boyfriend; he helps her when he can. He is smitten with her. In the meantime the tramp has run into the rich man, their initial meeting being the tramp's intervention in the others suicide attempt.
But the benefactor has mercurial fits of memory loss and gain, so his generous gestures are at best unreliable. In the midst of the tramp's efforts to do what we would term the right thing, other confounding moments occur. Which leads us to the comedy part.
In effect the tramp runs into troubles at every turn. His helpful and often unsolicited attempts make things right do not necessarily provide a real advantage for him or those about him. He does get the money to help the flower girl and grandmother, but at a price.
It is fun to watch the little tramp and his antics. Chaplin could certainly do physical comedy, and his attempts at this are very honest, involving tremendous eye to detail touches in all scenes. At one point he briefly eludes two policemen; his quickness and well-rehearsed reaction is actually difficult to follow.
I have read about the ending previously from a few sources, but no spoilers were among them. I appreciate this because the last few moments of "City Lights" deliver a terrific payoff. And its nice to know a boyhood suspicion was well-founded.
Three Stars
Many of what are considered great films were not shown anywhere, not on TV, certainly not on the big screen, for most of my early life. So it is that in my recent viewing of "City Lights" I saw my first full length Chaplin film. And I was not disappointed.
In this movie there are only a handful of main characters. Chaplin's little tramp is of course prominent, but the key supporting players certainly get a lot of screen time. Among them is the blind flower girl who becomes the center of the tramp's attention, her grandmother, and a very rich and also very boozy benefactor of sorts. The rich man's butler has a significant part. There are many, many players with brief parts.
As far as a plot goes, the tramp meets the blind flower girl and of course he is able over time to appear to her as a wealthy kind-of boyfriend; he helps her when he can. He is smitten with her. In the meantime the tramp has run into the rich man, their initial meeting being the tramp's intervention in the others suicide attempt.
But the benefactor has mercurial fits of memory loss and gain, so his generous gestures are at best unreliable. In the midst of the tramp's efforts to do what we would term the right thing, other confounding moments occur. Which leads us to the comedy part.
In effect the tramp runs into troubles at every turn. His helpful and often unsolicited attempts make things right do not necessarily provide a real advantage for him or those about him. He does get the money to help the flower girl and grandmother, but at a price.
It is fun to watch the little tramp and his antics. Chaplin could certainly do physical comedy, and his attempts at this are very honest, involving tremendous eye to detail touches in all scenes. At one point he briefly eludes two policemen; his quickness and well-rehearsed reaction is actually difficult to follow.
I have read about the ending previously from a few sources, but no spoilers were among them. I appreciate this because the last few moments of "City Lights" deliver a terrific payoff. And its nice to know a boyhood suspicion was well-founded.
Three Stars