City Lights is the first silent film that Charlie Chaplin directed after he established himself with sound accompanied films. The film is about a penniless man who falls in love with a flower girl....
I’m not one for arguing that everyone absolutely has to see silent films to appreciate film in general, but I like to think I recognize a good movie when I see it, and Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights” (1931) is a really good movie.
The plot plays like a Shakespearean comedy of errors and coincidences. It follows Chaplin’s meddling Tramp as he falls in love with a beautiful, blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). At the same time, the Tramp runs into a drunk millionaire (Hank Myers) and saves him from committing suicide; the woozy millionaire hails the Tramp his savior and best friend, but only when he is drunk — once this rich man is sober, the Tramp is just another annoying disturbance to his busy life. Using his nighttime advantage as a rich man’s best friend, the Tramp manages to fully convince his beloved flower girl that he is actually a millionaire mainly by helping her out financially. From this premise, “City Lights” constructs a wonderful rollercoaster of a story that concludes with arguably the most joyous finale in all of cinema.
Chaplin is known for his physical comedy and there is neither a lack nor unnecessary overflow of it in “City Lights”. His gags may look relatively cheap to us today, but they are executed so perfectly that they still dazzle and excite. Some extended jokes you have to wonder how he timed so perfectly — scenes like the boxing sequence which plays like a meticulously choreographed dance. What makes Chaplin’s Tramp both so hilarious and relatable even after all these years is that everything happens to him — he is the main victim of the universe — which is how we feel all the time.
Being a silent film, it depends heavily on acting and the occasional title card to propel its plot forward; here, there is no unnecessary dialogue (card), and the acting is truly perfect. There is emotion gushing out from the scenes between the Tramp and the flower girl who employ both subtle and grand gestures and expressions to visibly signal their overflowing attraction. I don’t think there has ever been an actor better at reactions than Charlie Chaplin; it is in these immaculate reactions that we sense love, fear, joy, pride, and despair in the Tramp. Though it is silent and in black and white, Chaplin’s masterpiece does not give us cardboard characters, but rather real (imperfect) human ones. Critic Roger Ebert wrote in a review of the B&W film “The Artist” (2011) that a film in black and white is “more concerned with essences than details”. “City Lights” is a perfect example of this as, in every scene, the nature of each character comes to the forefront more than anything else.
This is one of the most emotional movies I have ever seen; rarely do romantic movies show a longing for true love as strongly as this does. The Tramp is lowest on the social ladder — Chaplin’s whole hilarious bit is acting like a refined gentleman while really just exuding pure gaudiness. You truly believe that there is no way a guy like this can find love (and when he does find it…it’s conveniently with someone who is blind!). The Tramp’s beloved is perfect, but he isn’t so he thinks fooling her is the only way he can have someone so perfect accept him. What makes the final scene so effective is that it shows us what happens when someone is fully accepted despite their many, many faults coming to light at last. Chaplin’s famous final smile is no less than the purest reaction ever put to film.
