City Lights is generally regarded as Charlie Chaplin's greatest film and represents the peak of his achievement and reputation. It tells the deceptively simple story of Chaplin's famous little tramp character who befriends a lovely flower girl and earns money to help her afford surgery to restore her sight. The movie offers a combination of pathos, slapstick and comedy and shows Chaplin's comic, acting and artistic genius at its finest.
Although it was released three years after the start of the Talkies era Chaplin decided to make the film a 'Silent'. It includes a complete musical soundtrack and various sound effects - but no speech or dialogue. Incredibly, Chaplin's film was not nominated for a single Academy Award - to the pro-talking film Academy members, it must have appeared to be reversing the trend toward talkies and advanced sound films.
Chaplin was responsible for the film's production, direction, editing, music, and screenplay.
The AFI recently ranked this #76 on their list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time. Orson Welles had called it his favorite film of all time, while in the mid-‘60s, Stanley Kubrick placed it at #5 on his list of favorites. It's viewed by many others as the quintessential Chaplin film, a masterpiece in slapstick comedy, romance and pantomime. An absolute gem.
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