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!
Gaslight. It's the title of the 1944 film that earned Ingrid Bergman her first of three Academy Awards. It's also the name of the 1938 play which the film is based on. Gaslight is also now used, in result of both the play and film, as a psychological term that refers to a form of mental abuse. The impact this film had on the field of psychology is what fascinates the most about Gaslight.
The film begins with the cold blooded murder of a renowned opera singer. After the mysterious perpetrator escapes into the night, the singer is found strangled in her London home by her teenage niece and ward, Paula (Bergman). Understandably traumatized, Paula leaves for Italy where she will spend the next ten years of her life working to move past this ordeal.
"No, no. Don't look back, Paula. You need to forget about everything that's happened here... You must think of the future dear, not the past."
Teenage Paula, nearly catatonic, leaves her Aunt's home after discovering her Aunt's been murder. Via.
When we see Paula again she has blossomed in Italy, coming to cope with her Aunt's murder by avoiding her old life in London, and, more importantly, by finding love. A pianist named Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), whom she has known for only a short time, has stolen her heart. Swept away in a whirlwind romance, Paula and Gregory quickly marry. Shortly after, Paula finds herself promising her new husband that they can return to London and live in the house Paula inherited, the house where her Aunt was murdered.
Paula young, in love, and making dumb promises. Via.
Paula is understandably nervous about returning to her Aunt's house after so many years and so many dark memories. But Gregory doesn't back down; he urges that they are meant to live there and promises Paula that they will make new memories together. However, within the first few days at their new home strange occurrences start to happen, and Gregory's true nature slowly starts to reveal itself, layer by layer.
Paula quickly falls under Gregory's charming spell. Via.
It all begins with a simple flicker of the house's gaslights. Paula becomes curious when she starts to see the gaslights in the house inexplicably flicker every night. Her curiosity turns to concern when she starts to hear strange noises coming from the attic that has been closed off for years. Gregory and the household staff, however, maintain that only Paula is seeing and hearing these disturbances. Gregory insists that she's imagining things.
When portraits and pieces of jewelry start to go missing, Paula's concern turns into fear. Gregory insists that Paula is the one who has been moving and misplacing their belongings for no reason. He explains that she's becoming forgetful and her memory has been failing her. At first he sympathizes and pities her, but soon Gregory starts insisting that Paula is being irrational and paranoid. Before long, Paula is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"Suddenly I'm beginning not to trust my memory at all." - Paula
Paula becomes constantly anxious and on-edge. Via.
Suddenly Paula's charming and gentlemanly husband becomes patronizing, impatient, and cruel. Gregory stops letting Paula leave the house, in fear that she'll have an embarrassing fit in public. He insults and ridicules her in front of their household staff, making sure they witness all her paranoid fits and nervous breakdowns. Scared and isolated from the world, Paula gives into her husbands accusations, and starts to question her sanity.
By disregarding Paula's concerns, belittling her fears, and denying her suspicions, Gregory convinces Paula that her irrational behavior is an onset of insanity. A prisoner of both her house and her fears, Paula is completely under Gregory's control. Could this have been his sadistic objective all along?
"I couldn't have dreamed it... Did I dream it? Are you telling me that I've dreamed all that happened?... Then it's true, my mind is going... Then take me away. I can't fight it anymore."
Inspired by the film Gaslight, psychologists today consider gaslighting to be a form of emotional abuse used to covertly gain control over an individual. While Gregory and Paula's situation is a more extreme example of this, the gaslight effect is still more than prevalent in our society today. For example, "Of course I'm not cheating on you; you're just being paranoid." Or, "It was a joke; you're not fat. Stop being so sensitive." Gaslighting is using manipulation and intimidation to make someone question and doubt their own perception of reality. This can be done in a number of ways, all of which are unfortunately very common in our society. Trivializing someone else feelings, shaming someone for being upset, denying any personal wrong-doing and placing all the blame on the other person; these are all forms of gaslighting. After hearing these accusations enough times, the victim starts to believe them, and think they are just "too paranoid" or "too sensitive;" the victim starts to think they are the source of the problem.
I find it fascinating that a story written purely for entertainment could hold so much truth. Gaslight influenced the entire discourse of an intellectual field; to me this proves that movies are not just for entertainment and escapism. Movies can portray our life, society, and culture in a way that reveals truths we're not even aware of. Movies force us to take a step back and observe the world we're living in; just maybe we'll walk away with a little more knowledge and self-awareness than we came in with.
Ingrid Bergman looking absolutely stunning in one of her beautiful Gaslight costumes. Via.
Gaslight was and still is a great success. It garnered much more critical acclaim than the British version which was actually released four years prior to this version. Bergman rightly deserved the Oscar for her performance as Paula. The dynamic changes and transformations her character goes through are impeccably portrayed. Bergman successfully establishes Paula as a strong, beautiful, albeit naive woman at the beginning of the film, only to drown that strength in the self-doubt and paranoia of a woman who believes she's going mad.
Joseph Cotton, director George Cukor, and Ingrid Bergman behind the scenes of Gaslight. Bergman is resting on a leaning board which were (and sometimes still are) used on movie sets to allow actors to rest in between scenes without messing up their intricate hair, make-up and costumes. Via.
Gaslight also boasts Angela Lansbury's cinematic debut as the sassy and indifferent house maid, Nancy. Quickly convinced that Paula is just an uptight and crazy woman, Nancy openly dotes on Gregory. She flirts and teases him in front of Paula just to humiliate her. Lansbury is brilliant and actually earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role. Merely 17 years old at the time of filming, Lansbury showed no timidity or hesitation in this saucy role; she owns it. Although Bergman is the one who won the Oscar for Gaslight, I think Lansbury shines just as much, if not more. She admirably holds her own among a veteran cast.
"That maidservant is most impertinent."
I think you can tell from this picture, that Nancy doesn't give a fig. Via.
I highly recommend watching Gaslight. It is definitely a melodrama which can be hard for viewers today, living in the naturalist era of film, to understand and respect. Too often people label melodrama as "campy" or "over-the-top." I suggest approaching the melodramatic genre as you would approach opera. Both melodrama and opera are time-honored art forms, yet very different from more contemporary performances today. By approaching opera however, with an open mind and consciously restraining ourselves from comparing opera to Beyoncé, we can at least appreciate and respect the art form.
Melodramas need to be approach in the same manner; you can't go in expecting Marlon Brando. Instead of a naturalistic and subtle performance, you need to expect an emphasis on the emotions and drama. If you keep that in mind, I think any movie-lover can at least see Gaslight for what it is, an accomplished work of art. If you haven't seen it yet, check out Gaslight and share what you think in the comments below.
