Limelight (1952)
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Duration: 137 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom and Nigel Bruce
IMDb score:
8,0 (23.722)
Releasedate: 23 October 1952
Limelight plot
"The masterpiece of laughter and tears from the master of comedy!"
Calvero is a comedian who was once successful but is now falling into obscurity. He meets a ballet dancer who sees the future as sadly as he does, and together they try to get over their depression.
Actors and actresses
Calvero
Terry, a Dancer
Postant, an Impresario
Calvero's Partner
Neville
Bodalink
Dancer
Mrs. Alsop
Thereza's Doctor
John Redfern
Reviews & comments
Dievegge
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- 3166 messages
- 8185 votes
For four decades, Charlie Chaplin had entertained the world with his clownish character and his crazy stunts. As a thank you, he would be expelled from his host country by a bunch of humorless communist fighters. He responded by taking off his mask and making a melancholy drama about a comedian who has lost touch with his audience. Although shot in Hollywood, it is set in the London neighborhood where Chaplin grew up and was introduced to vaudeville, music hall and commedia dell'arte.
When the old man Calvero puts on his dark fake mustache before a performance, he looks bizarre. The former star is decrepit and written off. When they book him again, they do it out of pity and hire an claque to applaud him. Still, he will make the audience laugh one last time. The curtain opened once more.
Chaplin's years of pantomime experience can be seen when he eats a piece of fruit, when he performs his flea sketch, but also when he portrays a rose and a rock during a philosophical discourse. With this he tries to explain that in every object and in every living being there is an urge to live. Verbal humor is also in it when he picks up on his landlady to make her forget about that rent overdue. The old clown wants to see a part of himself live on in the young dancer. Her feelings for him are purely platonic, even if she tries to deny it. More serious topics are mentioned or suggested to the extent that censorship allowed: suicide, abortion and prostitution. It is a nostalgic ode to the bygone era of old comedy.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 14512 messages
- 4509 votes
Beautiful Chaplin and especially human. The film is especially strong in the first hour in that room and should have been played there completely. Nice role by Chaplin and clever use of flashbacks/dreams to insert a bit of comedy and music. Although modest and beautifully acted, it is noticeable that Chaplin prefers to just entertain. All in all, the film lasts just a little too long, with a well-rounded ending, but the film also drags more and more towards the end with less interesting side plots. 3.5*.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mrklm
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- 11374 messages
- 9897 votes
Based on an idea by Orson Welles and first developed into a novella by Chaplin himself. For the first time, Chaplin started his recordings with a fully completed script. His bitterness at the way the US has treated him over the past five years is evident. Chaplin's children appear in small roles, Snub Polard and Loyal Underwood (with whom Chaplin collaborated in the '10s), not to mention his biggest rival Buster Keaton, feature prominently in this nostalgic throwback to Chaplin's breakthrough as a Music Hall comedian. He plays the part of Calvero, once a big star but now reviled because his material is no longer popular. After saving ballerina Terry Ambrose [Claire Bloom] from suicide, a friendship develops. Helping Terry regain her confidence also grows his own self-image. Is there still a chance for one last triumph for the star of yesteryear? Chaplin used both his wife Oona and his mother as a source of inspiration for this very personal, but therefore not entirely convincing melodrama. The music is excellent and 20 years later (when the film was shown for the first time in Los Angels) it still won an Oscar®.
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