In this romantic comedy experience, Trump Chaplin falls in love with a blind girl, who, through a series of coincidences she encountered with Chaplin, got the impression that the rickety Tramp was a millionaire. In those moments, Chaplin tries to have a new experience with this girl, develops a troubled friendship and begins to help the girl financially.
With its themes of selflessness and grace, as well as its graceful intertwining of comedy and pathos, this is a fine time for a revisit.
2UE That Movie Show
April 28, 2012
City Lights gets to the heart of the Tramp. It is a beautiful romance about loving someone for who they are and not their social or economic status - and it features one of the most tear inducing and iconic endings in Hollywood history.
That final scene. Last week, CNN asked -- in "The Screening Room's Top 10 Romantic Moments" -- whether this was the most touching film moment of all time. Could be. Either way, if it doesn't move you, you're beyond human reach.
A beautiful example of Chaplin's ability to turn narrative fragments into emotional wholes. The two halves of the film are sentiment and slapstick. They are not blended but woven into a pattern as eccentric as it is sublime.
No filmmaker has ever been as successful as Chaplin in tugging at our heartstrings while simultaneously leaving us helpless in laughter, and this gem finds him operating at the peak of his abilities, even throwing his usual social critique into the mix.
"City Lights" is excruciatingly funny and terribly, terribly sad. It makes you chuckle hysterically. You have the greatest time imaginable, and yet, occasionally you find little hurty lumps in your throat.