City Lights (1931)
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Duration: 87 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill and Florence Lee
IMDb score:
8,5 (218.854)
Releasedate: 6 February 1931
City Lights plot
"True Blind Love"
A bum (Charlie Chaplin) falls in love with a beautiful blind girl. Her family is in financial trouble. The bum's on-again, off-again friendship with a rich man allows him to support the girl.
Actors and actresses
A Tramp
A Blind Girl
Her Grandmother
An Eccentric Millionaire
His Butler
A Prizefighter
Street Sweeper / Burglar (uncredited)
Boxing Fight Referee (uncredited)
Mayor / Blind Girl's Downstairs Neighbor (uncredited)
Bald Party Guest (uncredited)
Reviews & comments
Ebenezer Scrooge
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- 2150 messages
- 3092 votes
Another moving film by Charlie Chaplin. If this doesn't affect you, you are either made of stone or Fred Teeven. I can understand why Chaplin was lovingly embraced by the working class at the time and the proletarians flocked to the cinema to see this funny vagabond. Chaplin was one of them after all, the scum, the underdog, and people could forget their hard existence for a while. The same goes for Laurel & Hardy, by the way. Charlie Chaplin as Cassius Clay in the boxing ring, that can only lead to crazy situations, in combination with the violin music and the clarinet it is hypnotic. And I think that's exactly what film should do.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Bobbejaantje
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- 2365 messages
- 2119 votes
Charles Chaplin in the familiar role of tramp with gingerbread heart. The film starts with a strong comic scene - the unveiling of the statue - and then unfolds at a good pace. The gags and sentimental moments - the two sides of Chaplin - follow each other in quick succession. Quite clever how that man wrote everything together, acted, produced and also composed the music on top of it.
Nevertheless, I was not blown away by the film itself, compared to the rest of his feature films that I have already seen. For me it was a pretty entertaining movie until just before the end, but nothing more than that. One of the top scenes I thought was the boxing match choreography to Vivaldi-esque music.
But then came the finale - the meeting with the sighted girl - ... and Chaplin nailed it again! Those last three minutes and the communication that took place between them touched something in me, it was like poetry without words. Perhaps it is in those kinds of scenes that Chaplin's true genius is hidden after all. In many of his films he succeeds time and again in communicating a positive vision of humanity to the public.
Translated from Dutch · View original
De filosoof
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- 2613 messages
- 1791 votes
The film is a favorite of audiences and critics alike (it consistently ranks high on all 'greatest movies of all time' lists), but I was disappointed after seeing Chaplin's earlier classics. The film calls itself a “comedy romance in pantomime” and of course Chaplin does it right again on all fronts: the pantomime or the acting is masterly, the slapstick ingenious and comical, humor is found in every situation, the story is not only funny but also heartbreaking, the music deepens, etc but for me it lacked the genius of his earlier masterpieces. The story is very well put together but its themes such as the critique of the class differences that cause a lot of injustice, not least in terms of the romance that poor people (and here: people with disabilities) don't have so easy access to. we already know from his earlier films. The humor also starts to get jaded and always tends to the faint and predictable. Some slapstick goes on for too long making it monotonous. It is mainly the boxing scene and the moving, ambiguous ending that, in my opinion, still give the film its moments of genius.
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