Charming Chaplin: City Lights
January 26 - 30, 2024
Charming Chaplin: Four Iconic Charlie Chaplin Masterpieces
A hapless but resilient tramp (Charlie Chaplin) falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) on the tough city streets. Upon learning that she and her grandmother are to be evicted from their home, the tramp undertakes a series of attempts to provide them with the money they need, all of which end in humiliating failure. But after a drunken millionaire (Harry Myers) lavishly rewards him for saving his life, the tramp can change the flower girl's life forever.
City Lights, the most cherished film by Charlie Chaplin, is also his ultimate Little Tramp chronicle. The writer-director-star achieved new levels of grace, in both physical comedy and dramatic poignancy, with this silent tale of a lovable vagrant falling for a young blind woman who sells flowers on the street (a magical Virginia Cherrill) and mistakes him for a millionaire. Though this Depression-era smash was made after the advent of sound, Chaplin remained steadfast in his love for the expressive beauty of the pre-talkie form. The result was the epitome of his art and the crowning achievement of silent comedy.
- Director: Charlie Chaplin
- Principal Cast: Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee, Charlie Chaplin, Harry Myers
- Country: USA
- Year: 1931
- Running Time: 86 min.
- Producer: Charlie Chaplin
- Screenplay: Charlie Chaplin
- Cinematographers: Gordon Pollack, Rollie Totheroh
- Editors: Charlie Chaplin
- Music: Charlie Chaplin
- International Sales: Kino International