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City Lights is a american film of genre Drama directed by Charlie Chaplin released in USA on 7 march 1931 with Virginia Cherrill
City Lights (1931)
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Add to a movie listReleased in USA 7 march 1931
Length 1h27
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
OriginUSA
Themes Medical-themed films, Sports films, Boxing films, Films about disabilities, Le boxe anglaise, La cécité
Rating84%
City Lights is a 1931 American Pre-Code silent romantic comedy film written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin's Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and develops a turbulent friendship with an alcoholic millionaire (Harry Myers).
Although sound films were on the rise when Chaplin started developing the script in 1928, he decided to continue working with silent productions. Filming started in December 1928, and ended in September 1930. City Lights marked the first time Chaplin composed the film score to one of his productions and it was written in six weeks with Arthur Johnston. The main theme used as a leitmotif for the blind flower girl is the song "La Violetera" ("Who’ll Buy my Violets") from Spanish composer José Padilla. Chaplin lost a lawsuit to Padilla for not crediting him.
City Lights was immediately successful upon release on January 30, 1931, with positive reviews and box office receipts of $5 million. Today, critics consider it not only the highest accomplishment of Chaplin's career, but one of the greatest films ever made. In 1992, the Library of Congress selected City Lights for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2007, the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies ranked City Lights as the 11th greatest American film of all time. In 1949, the critic James Agee referred to the final scene in the film as the "greatest single piece of acting ever committed to celluloid".
Synopsis
The officials of a city unveil a new statue, only to find The Tramp sleeping on it. They shoo him away and he wanders the streets, destitute and homeless, and is soon tormented by two newsboys. He happens upon a beautiful Flower Girl (Virginia Cherrill), not realizing at first that she is blind, and buys a flower. Just when she is about to give him his change, a man gets into a nearby luxury car and is driven away, making her think that the Tramp has departed. The Tramp tiptoes away.Actors
Virginia Cherrill
(A Blind Girl)
Florence Lee
(The Blind Girl's Grandmother)
Harry Myers
(An Eccentric Millionaire)
Florence Lee
(La grand-mère de la jeune fille)
Charlie Chaplin
(Tramp)
Charlie Chaplin filmography
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Suggestions of similar film to City Lights
There are 209 films with the same actors, 72 films with the same director, 88323 with the same cinematographic genres (including 1086 with exactly the same 4 genres than City Lights), 7657 films with the same themes (including 0 films with the same 6 themes than City Lights), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked City Lights, you will probably like those similar films :
The Great Dictator (1940)
, 2h4Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Comedy, Comedy-drama
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Rating83%
The action starts in 1918, with the collapse of the Tomainian (German) army. A Jewish barber saves the life of a wounded pilot, Schultz, but loses his own memory through concussion.
Modern Times (1936)
, 1h27Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romantic comedy
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Rating84%
Modern Times portrays Chaplin as a factory worker employed on an assembly line. There, he is subjected to such indignities as being force-fed by a "modern" feeding machine and an accelerating assembly line where he screws nuts at an ever-increasing rate onto pieces of machinery. He finally suffers a nervous breakdown and runs amok, throwing the factory into chaos. He is sent to a hospital. Following his recovery, the now unemployed factory worker is mistakenly arrested as an instigator in a Communist demonstration. In jail, he accidentally ingests smuggled cocaine, mistaking it for salt. In his subsequent delirium, he gets out of the jail. When he returns, he stumbles upon a jailbreak and knocks the convicts unconscious. He is hailed a hero and is released.
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, 33minutesDirected by Charlie Chaplin
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Genres Comedy
Themes Sports films, Boxing films, Le boxe anglaise
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Genres Comedy
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Rating58%
Charlot rencontre Ben Turpin et sympathise avec lui ; il se dispute ensuite avec un dandy puis se rend dans un bar. Sérieusement éméché, il retrouve le dandy au restaurant et se dispute encore avec ce dernier. Le videur intervient alors et fait sortir brutalement Ben Turpin et plus tard Charlot qui retournent alors à leur hôtel ; ils croisent alors une femme ravissante qui s'avère être celle du videur. Charlot préfère s'éclipser.
One A.M. (1916)
, 22minutesDirected by Charlie Chaplin
Origin USA
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Rating69%
The film opens with a scene of a wealthy young man (Chaplin) arriving at his house in a taxi late at night after a night of heavy drinking. He struggles with the car door when exiting the car and then in paying the taxi driver (Albert Austin). When he gets to his front door, he thinks that he has forgotten the key and has to enter through the window. While climbing in through the window, he steps into a fishbowl that's placed underneath it and then almost falls down when the carpet underneath him slides. After finding his balance again, he goes through his pockets and realises that the key has been there all the while. He goes back through the window and enters through the front door.
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, 24minutesDirected by Charlie Chaplin
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Genres Comedy
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Actors Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Bergman, John Rand, Albert Austin
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Chaplin plays a drunkard who checks into a health spa to dry out, but brings along a big suitcase full of alcohol. Along the way he aggravates a large man suffering from gout, evades him and encounters a beautiful young woman who encourages him to stop drinking. However, when the hotel owner learns his employees are getting drunk off Charlie's liquor, he calls an employee and orders him to have the liquor thrown out the window.
The Circus (1928)
, 1h10Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romance
Themes Circus films
Actors Al Ernest Garcia, Charlie Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, George Davis, Henry Bergman, Tiny Sandford
Rating80%
At a circus midway, the penniless and hungry Tramp (Chaplin) is mistaken for a condemnable pickpocket and chased by both the police and the real crook (the latter having stashed a stolen wallet and watch in the Tramp's pocket to avoid detection). Running away, the Tramp stumbles into the middle of a performance and unknowingly becomes the hit of the show.
The Idle Class (1921)
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Origin USA
Genres Comedy
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Rating72%
The "Little Tramp" (Charlie Chaplin) heads to a resort for warm weather and a bit of golf. At the golf course, the Tramp's theft of balls in play causes one golfer (Mack Swain) to mistakenly attack another (John Rand). Meanwhile, a neglected wife (Edna Purviance) leaves her wealthy husband (also played by Chaplin) until he gives up drinking. When the Tramp is later mistaken for a pickpocket, he crashes a masquerade ball to escape from a policeman. There, he is mistaken for the woman's husband. Eventually, it is all straightened out, and the Tramp is once more on his way.
Limelight (1952)
, 2h17Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Musical, Romance
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Rating79%
The movie is set in London in 1914, on the eve of World War I (and the year Chaplin made his first film). Calvero (Chaplin), once a famous stage clown but now a washed-up drunk, saves a young dancer, Thereza "Terry" Ambrose, (Claire Bloom), from suicide. Nursing her back to health, Calvero helps Terry regain her self-esteem and resume her dancing career. In doing so he regains his own self-confidence, but his attempts to make a comeback meet with failure. Terry says she wants to marry Calvero despite their age difference, although she has befriended Neville (Sydney Earl Chaplin), a young composer Calvero believes would be better suited to her. In order to give them a chance, Calvero leaves home and becomes a street entertainer. Terry, now starring in her own show, eventually finds Calvero and persuades him to return to the stage for a benefit concert. Reunited with an old partner (Keaton), Calvero gives a triumphant comeback performance. He suffers a heart attack during a routine, however, and dies in the wings while watching Terry, the second act on the bill, dance on stage.