City Lights (1931)

Réalisateur:

Charles Chaplin

Scénariste:

Charles Chaplin (writer)

Date de sortie:

6 février 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Comedie | Drame | Romance

Intrigue:

The Tramp struggles to help a blind flower girl he has fallen in love with.

Plot Keywords:

Tramp | Love | Little Tramp | Benefactor | Operation

Récompenses:

1 win

Avis des utilisateurs:

A classic film made with love and precision

Ensemble

Virginia Cherrill	...	A Blind Girl
Florence Lee	...	The Blind Girl's Grandmother
Harry Myers	...	An Eccentric Millionaire
Al Ernest Garcia	...	The Eccentric Millionaire's Butler (as Allan Garcia)
Hank Mann	...	A Prizefighter
Charles Chaplin	...	A Tramp (as Charlie Chaplin)

Autre(s) titre(s):

City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime (USA) (copyright title)

Durée:

87 min

Pays:

USA

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Rapport de forme:

1,20 : 1

Son:

Silent | Mono (musical score)

Classification:

France:U | Portugal:M/6 (DVD rating) | Spain:T | West Germany:12 (1951) | Germany:6 (re-rating: 1997) | USA:G (1972) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | South Korea:Tous | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Denmark:A (2003) | Norway:7 | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Lieux de tournage:

Chaplin Studios - 1416 N. La Brea Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Société:

Charles Chaplin Productions

Anecdotes:

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.

Goofs:

Continuité: When the tramp buys all of the flower girl's flowers, she wears black stockings, but when he brings her home immediately afterward, she wears tan stockings.

Guillemet:

The Tramp: Tomorrow the birds will sing.

Connexions De Film:

Référencé sur The Producers (1968)

A classic film made with love and precision

Film has become a medium that is strongly influenced by nostalgia. Old films have become journeys to the past; ways to visit times and people that no longer are. Since film is an art that is based on the innovation of previous works, it has an element of nostalgia in its foundation. We look on the old to find what elements should make up the new. In City Lights, and other silent works of film, a passion emerges that is uniquely honest and sincere. While watching the film, I was impressed that Chaplin really did love the story, the sets, the crew; the whole project. While this may not have been the complete reality, it felt that way, and thus made the film more enjoyable. In silent films the audience is forced to be completely reliable on the visual elements of the film; there are no elaborate sound effects or dialogue to provoke an emotional response.

Since film is at its very core a visual medium, I find silent films to be the basic form of the medium. I don't use the word basic here in a demeaning sense, but I compare the beauty of silent films to the beauty of early European art, before the concept of perspective was developed in the Renaissance. Many books and tomes featured people as tall as the castles they stood in; these works of art were not technologically advanced, but they were, and are, beautiful. The same example is found when comparing early darreographs of wild animals to contemporary photographs found in National Geographic. There is a warmth found in City Lights, and other Chaplin films (The Kid, Modern Times) that would be lost in the sea of cinematic technology that floods films today. Maybe it's just that with simplicity comes honesty, and honesty is perhaps the most powerful emotion that can cross through the screen and be felt by the viewer.