This "City Lights" was my first silent movie, if not counting the ones I watched on TV as a kid. Unexpectedly, this silent film brought me more joy and sadness than the sound film.
The story of the film is very simple now. A homeless man on the street, although poor, he is kind, caring and willing to help others. He saved a monopoly who wanted to commit suicide. Whenever the monopoly was not sober, they became good friends. After sober, they became two different people and completely forgot about him. Meanwhile, he fell in love with a blind flower girl and wanted to help her. Driven by love, the homeless borrowed money from the rich man to treat the blind girl's eyes, but was mistaken for a thief and arrested. After being released from prison, he ran into a blind girl whose eyes were cured, and after recognizing each other, the story of the film ended.
The film describes the joys, sorrows and sorrows of the little people in the city. Like the title of the film, the tramp is poor, but he is the light of the city, because of him, the world is so beautiful. He is poor, he has no culture, but he has a heart, and he is willing to give everything for the one he loves. He was willing to work as a coolie, and did not care about the safety of his own life to fight boxing. All the things he did were things that the rich people in the upper class would never do, let alone the life and death of a blind girl. Through this sharp contrast, the director reflects the cruelty and indifference of the real society. This situation is most clearly reflected in the rich man. When he is sober, his six relatives do not recognize him, which is the real him; when he is drunk, he can only treat the homeless as friends, and the rich are even more lonely around him. As a silent film of the 1930s, it can discover such a profound theme and connotation, and it is worthy of being a masterpiece that has a long history. I also finally know why a silent film can be ranked so high in the IMDB250.
In addition to the deep theme, the film's funny scenes and various hilarious points are also one of the advantages. I'm not very familiar with the style of this film, but Charles Chaplin's way of turning every detail into a reasonable laugh is admirable. There are several scenes in the film that make my stomach hurt from laughing, like dancing on the dance floor and saving people by the river. The funny scenes in the film are exquisitely designed, and the performances of the actors are also very good. Every position and every action seems to be carefully designed, and it looks reasonable and just right, which is really amazing. Now, you don't see a movie in this style anymore.
As a silent film, the music of the film cannot but be mentioned. The music is closely integrated with the plot, which plays a role in assisting the plot of the film, which is very pleasant. In addition to the music, the sound effects of the film are even better. Whenever a funny scene appears, all kinds of strange sound effects will come out at the right time, adding more money to the film, which is great. Without excellent sound effects, the effect of the laughing point will be greatly reduced.
This style of film has very high requirements for the actors' body movements and expressions. The actors in this film perfectly interpret these characters. The specific names of these actors are not very easy to check, but I can only say that all of them are excellent, especially the actor who plays the rich man, who is not inferior to Charles Chaplin at all. In addition, Jean Harlow, the heroine of the film, who plays the blind woman, is very beautiful. Although she plays a blind woman, her eyes are full of spirituality as if she can speak.
All in all, this is a movie that surprised me a lot. Charles Chaplin is really talented, a great filmmaker
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