City Lights

City Lights (1931) is about a tramp falling in love with a blind flower girl. She believes he is wealthy; she hears a car door closing and assumes the man who stepped out is him. He does not correct her. Meanwhile he meets a millionaire attempting suicide. Drunk, the man treats him as his closest friend; sober, he does not know him. That doubleness is the best source of humour in it. There is an operation that could restore her sight and it requires money. The tramp collects rubbish in the street, then goes into the boxing ring. The boxing sequence is among the best constructed comic scenes in cinema; the man keeps putting the referee between himself and his opponent. The timing is worth noting. Sound had arrived by 1931 and making a silent film was considered commercial suicide. Chaplin made it silent anyway, adding only music and sound effects. He composed the score himself. The shoot took close to three years. He got stuck on the first meeting with the flower girl: he wanted her reason for thinking him wealthy to be convincing, and worked for months on that one scene, shooting it again and again. The last scene is her recognising him after her sight returns. It is not about what is said; two faces are shown and the film ends. That closing is among the most cited in cinema. It runs 87 minutes. Good for: silent cinema, Chaplin, and classics. Less good for: the rhythm of silent film takes getting used to and some sections run long.