Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime is quite possibly the most beautiful film ever to be put in celluloid. Every single scene is full of an indescribable richness which makes this movie unique and definitely one of the best of all times. Chaplin was, and still is, well-known for his obsession with perfectionism -which caused him to repeat some scenes over three hundred times to achieve what he wanted- and in the early 1930’s, when he was at the highest peak of his career he directed, wrote, composed, edited and of course performed in his first motion picture during the sound era. Despite being a silent movie –Chaplin openly opposed to sound stating it would do nothing but damage to film industry- he managed to create a Romantic Comedy which is emotionally more powerful than 99% of the current spoken Hollywood films of its ilk. I don’t know if City Lights is Chaplin’s finest cinematic achievement because I’ve only watched Modern Times apart from it but it will be very difficult for any of his other films to overcome such an excellent movie as this.

The movie tells the story of a tramp (Chaplin), who falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill)  he happens to find while wandering the streets. The very night after he meets her, the tramp also happens to meet an eccentric millionaire (Harry Myers), an alcoholic who is having some problems coping with the fact that his wife has left him and is trying to commit suicide by drowning in the city’s river. The millionaire is very thankful with the tramp after he saves his life and apparently wants him to be his new best friend. Later on, our protagonist is led to the thought that the only way to be corresponded by the blind girl is by pretending to be a millionaire and he realizes he can use his new friend to do that. Unfortunately for him, the eccentric man only recognizes him when he’s drunk so the tramp is going to have to struggle on his own to help her beloved girl.

City Lights works well in every single aspect but if I had to highlight one, it would be the direction. Charles Chaplin’s wok is absolutely awesome and he manages to create a funny and beautiful –there’s no other way to describe it- story which also touches some deep subjects like true love or human hypocrisy, egoism and self-interest. The tramp is gratefully surprised when he’s loved by a girl who can’t even see him, and the girl is also surprised because there is someone who cares for her no matter her blindness. One may think the protagonist is using the eccentric man to get away with some money to serve his own purpose but is actually the other way around; the millionaire seeks for the tramp when he needs someone to forget about his problems with and after he’s been “comforted” he just drops him away like one of his many unnecessary possessions. The tramp is one of the most funny and charismatic characters of cinema history and in a story in which characters couldn’t really be developed due to the lack of a script, the insight we get from the main character –he never looks paper-thin- is all the director’s responsibility.

Or maybe not, it may be the protagonist’s responsibility, but the main character is also played by the great Charles Chaplin. He’s undoubtedly a magnificent comedian and actor and in City Lights he’s capable to make us feel connected with his alter-ego to the point we feel as desperate as him to earn some money and touched with his charismatic performance. There are only six characters in this movie but every actor seems to be just comfortable with his role. I reckon one needs as much talent –if not more- to perform well in a silent movie than in a spoken one, mainly because in the latter, the performer has one extra resource, voice acting, to create a believable character and make it interesting for the audience while in the former, the actor has to do his best with just body language and physical expressions. Virginia Cherill is the most important secondary character and his performance in the film is as important as Chaplin’s in order to make it work. They say the director fired the actress for being late from an appointment but had to re-hire her (and double her salary) because he had investing too much time preparing her for her role. Harry Myers and Al Garcia are particularly good as well.

The film also comes with a good score by Chaplin himself; the music is typical of his movies and feels classical for silent cinema. Visually, City Lights is full a beauty which is hard to find in most of the motion pictures. Even the few lines that appear in some signs are well-written and funny. A movie of this magnitude had to have more than a couple of memorable scenes and this certainly does have a few. The boxing sequence is well acted, choreographed and directed and is -for some- one of the funniest scenes of all times, but what’s most impressive is the ending. The final scene is just breathtaking and emotionally it takes you to a different level. Chaplin’s acting is just particularly magnificent in it and so are the words he says; he’s able to recreate so many emotions during a shot which lasts no more than a few seconds. It has been regarded as the best ending any film has ever had and it certainly deserves that title. If someone is reading this, I don’t want him to get a copy of the film and just watch the last five minutes; they wouldn’t have any effect on you at all. I don’t want to isolate the ending, its great power lies in the connection it has with the rest of the film.

Some modern viewers are strangely biased and trend to prejudice old movies, especially if they’re in black and white and even more if they’re silent because they think, they’re slow and boring. City Lights is probably the best example of how interesting and entertainingly funny a film can be no matter what. Telling the story of a man who is motivated by the best of the intentions to fight against anything to get what he wants and managing to make the viewer laugh more than a few times, must not be an easy task. Charles Chaplin, a synonym of good filmmaking, an outstanding director, actor and comedian, a perfectionist whose work was never recognized as it should have been when he was alive, makes it look easy. A masterpiece.

© Mauricio Kahn

Lima, Feb 2008

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