Charlie Chaplin once said, in rebuttal to his critics, “I don’t need interesting camera angles. I am interesting.” Chaplin is still criticized for his lack of artistry behind the camera, magnified by his peer Buster Keaton’s supreme artistry. But Chaplin learned simply by doing. Over the years he became a competent director more skilled at timing and clarity than at angles. All his films are masterworks in some form or another. His sound pictures: “The Great Dictator” (1940), “Monsieur Verdoux” (1947), “Limelight” (1952), and “A King in New York” (1957) are highly valued in some circles for their darkness, satire, and exploration of more complex characters. But the world knows Charlie Chaplin as the Tramp. It’s as the Tramp that he holds his place as the supreme cinema artist of the 20th Century. No other actor, director, writer, producer, or musician is more recognizable, more appreciated, more sublime than Chaplin. Of his Tramp movies the best known are: “The Kid” (1921), “The Gold Rush” (1925), “City Lights” (1931) and “Modern Times” (1936). Of these, “City Lights” is perhaps his greatest achievement, mixing an inventiveness with sound, and doing so with a poignancy that the others lack. In “City Lights” Chaplin meets up with a blind flower girl, whom he falls in love with, and a drunken millionaire, who only remembers the Tramp when drinking. The flower girl mistakes the Tramp for a millionaire and the Tramp finds himself trying to raise money for an operation to restore her sight. “City Lights” has many great scenes, including the Tramp in the boxing ring, the Tramp swallowing a whistle, and the Tramp trying to prevent the millionaire’s suicide. But the scene that belongs in the canon is the final scene when the flower girl, her sight restored, feels Chaplin’s hands and realizes that he is the one. Then she realizes that he is really a tramp. It’s an extraordinary moment. Only the most supreme artist could have pulled it off. “City Lights” is distilled Chaplin--all his best in one movie.
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