Looking for a movie to watch with your Valentine this weekend? Look no further than Charlie Chaplin's 1931 masterpiece, City Lights. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll sigh as Chaplin's Little Tramp melts your heart.
City Lights is a heartwarming story featuring Chaplin's famous Tramp character. This time, the little Tramp has found love, falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street corner. The flower girl, through a misunderstanding , believes the enamored Tramp is rich millionaire. Wanting to impress her, the Tramp goes to great lengths to keep up this misunderstanding. As the Tramp falls more in love with the woman, the more determined he becomes to help her regain her vision. It's a very simple story line, as most of Chaplin's films are, however it is simple without being simplistic. The raw and sincere emotions mixed with the slapstick comedy Chaplin was known for, makes this more than just another silent film.
The Tramp meeting the flower girl for the first time. Via.
This film boasts some of Chaplin's most famous comedic sketches and visual gags. The Tramp's unfortunate boxing match is one of the most revered scenes. In hopes of earning money to help the blind woman, the Tramp signs up for a boxing match. He and his opponent however strike a deal ahead of time; the Tramp will throw the match and his opponent will only pretend to hurt him. At the end they'll split the winnings 50/50. As the Tramp's luck would have it though, his opponent and co-conspirator drops out of the match at the last minute, and the Tramp finds himself facing a new opponent- a heavy weight determined to win the match fair and square.
Watch and see how the Tramp tries to avoid his opponent in the ring.
Even more impressive than the comedy, is the heart in this film. Despite being scatterbrained and eccentric, the Tramp is so incredibly lovable. His love for the blind flower girl is so innocent and sincere, and the lengths he goes to in order to help her is truly magical. He knows he's not the rich millionaire she thinks he is, but he wants to be her hero anyways. The final scene of the picture is one of the most beautiful scenes ever captured on film. It's unbelievable how much emotion is silently expressed in that scene.
I also particularly love the scene in which the Tramp is trying to help the woman wind her sewing yarn, except the girl accidentally grabs a thread from his shirt and starts unwinding it. Instead of correcting her and saving his sweater, the Tramp helps her continue to unwind his clothing. It's hilarious and incredibly sweet at the same time.
The ONLY clip of the sweater scene I could find is unfortunately and ridiculously paired with a song by Weezer. (I recommend muting, and enjoying in silence)
I think I could watch Chaplin's charming expressions and mannerisms all day long. From his waddle of a walk, to his crazy schemes and misfortunes, I just can't help but smile at everything that Tramp does. Chaplin always portrayed the little Tramp as a lovable and endearing goofball, but I think his delightful charm in City Lights is incomparable. And the Tramps's enthusiastic love for the flower girl makes him more relatable and endearing than ever before.
Chaplin himself was a true cinematic renaissance man. Not only did he create and portray the famous and beloved Tramp personae, he also wrote, directed, edited, and scored the majority of his films, including City Lights. He started the script for City Lights with the general idea of blindness. His initial screenplay had him starring as a blind circus clown who was trying to hide his condition from his young daughter. Somewhere along the way the story changed to a blind young woman who the Tramp falls in love with.
The young flower girl, played by Virginia Cherrill. Via.
From the get-go, Chaplin knew he wanted City Lights to be a silent film. In 1931 when the film was made, "talkie" films had really stolen the cinematic scene from silent pictures. Most production companies at the time would have probably considered City Lights to be a bad business investment that was destined to flop. But Chaplin was convinced, and rightly so, that the Tramp character would not translate to sound successfully. He knew that the beauty of the Tramp was that he was understood and loved worldwide; relying on muted, pantomime comedy, there was no language barriers. If the Tramp was going to start talking in his films, he would be isolating a huge portion of his worldwide fans.
Chaplin also understood that without sound, the Tramp's voice was filled in with the audience's imagination. His fans expanded the character of the Tramp in their own minds. If Chaplin made a concrete decision of how the Tramp sounded and talked, his interpretation would ruin the vision the fans had created of the Tramp in their mind. So the Tramp stayed silent, a decision which I think we are all grateful Chaplin made.
Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein who was his guest of honor at the premiere of City Lights.Via.
It is unsurprising that in additional to abundant talents, Chaplin was also a massive perfectionist. Because of this City Lights took a remarkably long time to finish. The filming took just over 180 days to complete; the initial meeting between the Tramp and the flower girl alone took 342 takes (for those of you who don't know, that scene is all of 3 minutes long). From the pre-production planning to post-production editing, Chaplin clocked in at a total of 2 years and 8 months working on City Lights. It was one of the most ambitious and involved undertakings of his career.
The Tramp meeting the flower girl. Also note, Chaplin's beautiful score.
Chaplin's hard work certainly paid off; not only do fans and critics consider City Lights to be one of his greatest achievements, the film also remained Chaplin's personal favorite of all his works until his dying day.
A very happy Valentine's Day from the Vintage Marquee!
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