Little Tramp(Charlie Chaplin) while walking around the city met a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) who was selling flowers. tramp fell in love with a poor flower girl, who, not seeing him, mistook him for a rich man.

Having learned that an expensive operation in Europe can restore sight to a girl, Tramp is trying to earn a trip for his beloved.

One day tramp saved a depressed drunk millionaire (Harry Myers) from suicide. In gratitude for this, he brought his savior to his home, but, having sobered up the next morning and forgetting what happened at night, he kicked him out into the street ...

The history of the film City Lights / City Lights

The premiere of the most famous and, according to many, the best picture Charlie Chaplin « The lights big city ” (City Lights) took place on January 30, 1931 in Los Angeles.

Work on the tape began on December 31, 1927 and continued until January 22, 1931 - more than three years, of which the actual shooting took 180 days. Over no other of their tapes Chaplin didn't work for that long. Although sound cinema already existed and developed rapidly, Chaplin decided to shoot a silent picture. Nevertheless, he nevertheless took advantage of the new opportunities and recorded the music he composed for the film, as well as the noise accompaniment to it.

« City lights"- the first film Charlie Chaplin in which his voice is heard. At the beginning of the picture, in the scene of the opening of the monument, he voiced the representative of the city authorities and the lady. Slurred speech was played Chaplin using a reed for wind musical instruments.

Initially it was assumed that the events of the film would take place in Paris, but then it was decided to create collective image different metropolitan areas of the world. Film researchers note that the city where the characters of the tape live is similar to London, Los Angeles, Naples, Paris, Tangier and other cities at the same time.

About how the idea for the future picture appeared, Chaplin wrote in his memoirs:

“The plot of the film was suggested to me by the story of a circus clown who lost his sight as a result of an accident. He had a little daughter, very sickly and nervous, and before leaving the hospital, the doctor warned him that he must hide the blindness from his daughter until she was strong enough to bear this blow, which she now could not bear. At home, the clown walked around the room, stumbling, bumping into furniture, and the girl laughed merrily. However, it was all too sentimental, and in "City Lights" the blindness of the clown passed to the flower girl.

The main character of the picture, the Little Tramp, or, as this character is called in Europe, Charlot played himself Charlie Chaplin.

The role of the blind flower girl was played by Virginia Cherrill(Virginia Cherrill), whom Chaplin met at a boxing match. Cherrill was very nearsighted and Chaplin, seeing that she was unable to focus her eyes, decided that she could believably play the blind. The relationship between the filmmaker and the actress was very complicated. After a series of conflicts Chaplin even fired Cherrill, deciding to shoot instead of her Georgia Hale(Georgia Hale), who played main character in his 1925 comedy " Golden fever» (The Gold Rush). However, when Chaplin calculated how much it would cost to reshoot the picture, he asked Cherrill return to the set and even complied with her demand to double the fee.

An Australian artist first starred as the eccentric millionaire Henry Clive(Henry Clive), whom Chaplin hired in May 1928 to make the scenery for the film, and then offered to play in the picture. Later, however, the role of a millionaire was invited Harry Myers(Harry Myers), and all scenes with Clive were redrawn.

Ribbon " City lights is recognized as one of the masterpieces of world cinema.

The film is ranked #1 on the American Film Institute (AFI)'s "Top 10 Romantic Comedies" list. In 1991, the film was included in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for safekeeping by the US National Film Preservation Board.

Interesting facts about the movie City Lights / City Lights

The full title of the film is City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime».
- Filming the scene in which the Little Tramp buys a flower from a blind girl took several months, during which 342 takes were made. Chaplin for a long time he could not find a way to convincingly show why a blind flower girl mistook a tramp for a rich man.
- Visited the film set Winston Churchill(Winston Churchill), and Chaplin even interrupted filming to shoot a short film about the visit of the future Prime Minister of Great Britain.
- Of all his paintings " City lights» Charlie Chaplin loved more than others. Andrei Tarkovsky And Orson Welles(Orson Welles) also called " City lights» with your favorite movie, and Woody Allen(Woody Allen) counts him best movie Chaplin.

The film crew of the film City Lights

Directed by: Charles Chaplin
Screenwriters: Charles Chaplin, Harry Crocker, Harry Clive
Producer: Charles Chaplin
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Al Ernest Garcia, Hank Mann, Jack Alexander, T.S. Alexander, Victor Alexander, Albert Austin, Harry Ayers and others
Cinematographers: Gordon Pollock, Roland Tothero
Composer: Charles Chaplin

It is generally accepted that silent films have always been performed invariably under the pianist - a pianist, hysterically trying to squeeze sounds out of a dilapidated instrument. Vladimir Spivakov, with the help of his assistants - the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, dispels this myth, for 5 years now he has been traveling with the Chaplin Hour project around the world.

Few people know that Charlie Chaplin was not only an actor and director, but also a composer - for 7 of his films he wrote original music to accompany the events taking place on the screen. True, he entrusted only music, orchestration to more professional musicians. It is interesting that in America of those years it was rare to meet a taper in the sense that we are used to. Scores for musical accompaniment were sent to each cinema along with the film. And quite often films were shown to the accompaniment of a full-fledged symphony orchestra.

Today, many have the opportunity to feel for themselves how it happened in America at the beginning of the last century, thanks to the work of Vladimir Spivakov, who invented and brought to life the film and music project Chaplin's Hour. The idea is simple. On the screen, the audience sees Charlie Chaplin's film "City Lights", and in the hall the orchestra plays the music of the great "silent" director, written especially for this film. Everything is like then.

Chaplin as a composer

It must be admitted that his melodies fit incredibly harmoniously into his paintings, they sound lively, expressive and are perfectly remembered - leaving the hall after such a viewing, you will be humming these melodies for several more days.

The maestro had no special education, but he was incredibly musical - he played the piano, violin, cello, read notes freely and even often held a conductor's baton in his hands! Of course, this is not enough to orchestrate your musical ideas, but here friends come to the rescue. From time to time we can hear in Chaplin's melodies witty quotations from other famous composers, they are quite appropriate and harmoniously woven into the overall outline of the musical narrative. Chaplin was also an excellent singer. They say the truth - a talented person is talented in everything. He possessed a wonderful operatic tenor!

Charlie Chaplin - Orchestra Man

Music to the film "City Lights"

Spivakov's project is not simple - it is necessary not only to convey the mood of silent cinema, but also to accurately get into what is happening on the screen. The film lasts much longer than an hour - about 90 minutes and the music plays all this time. I must say that it does not entirely belong to the pen of Chaplin himself - the theme of the blind flower girl was written by the composer José Padilla, and Arthur Johnston and Alfred Newman did the orchestration for "Lights". 150 sheets of musical text and an hour and a half of sound is a very serious composing work. It is completely incomprehensible how Chaplin managed to keep up with all this: write scripts, make films, play in it, produce, write and perform music. Truly a man-orchestra!

Charlie Chaplin Kukarkin Alexander Viktorovich

HERO'S INSIGHT ("City Lights")

Don't you know that in comedies our mental mood is also nothing but a mixture of sadness and pleasure ...

Chaplin's personal experiences and moods found, of course, a well-known reflection both in the final shots of The Circus and in the film City Lights (1931). But the theme, the ideological orientation of the latter were by no means determined by them. As in the years of the First World War, the artist now sought to become closer to the events of our time. The onset of the world economic crisis and all the disasters that it brought to the working people caused an immediate reaction from the shocked Chaplin. He made serious adjustments to the plan of the planned film "City Lights" and entirely dedicated the next film, "Modern Times", to the theme of the crisis. Chaplin perceived the crisis not just as another "downturn" in business activity, a downward economic curve. keen eye the artist saw behind him something incomparably greater - a sign of the era, a manifestation of one of the main typical features of the capitalist system.

"City Lights" starts with grand opening monument, hypocritically named "Peace and Prosperity". The opening ceremony was decided by Chaplin in a grotesque-satirical style, which immediately sheds light on his attitude to what is happening. When the veil is torn off from the majestic but tasteless monument, it turns out that in the foreground there are two huge figures, personifying Strength and Law; on the lap of the central statue - Prosperity - sleeps a small and pathetic unemployed Charlie. He wants to flee from those gathered for the celebration and angry with his "tactless" appearance of well-fed fat men and skinny hypocrites. The fine-looking gentlemen and overripe ladies on the podium are especially rampant, and with them the indispensable policeman. To calm them down, Charlie correctly raises his bowler hat: now it will come off, no need to worry, gentlemen. He descends, but stumbles upon the huge sword of one of the lower figures. The sword goes through the wide pants, and Charlie slides down it to the hilt. The outrage of the crowd intensifies. Charlie is distressed; floundering desperately, he again takes off his gentleman's bowler hat and bows politely.

The orchestra plays the anthem, which makes the crowd freeze, and the policeman, and Charlie himself. With an incredible effort to keep his balance, Charlie takes off the bowler hat, reverently brings it to his chest and, leaning on the pedestal with the very tip of his sock, freezes without moving. A curse! The sock slips off and Charlie starts floundering again.

The anthem is over. It is immediately replaced by a roar and menacing screams. Charlie manages to finally get off the sword. He feels his damaged pants. Irreparable damage! And then the lace on the shoe was untied. To lace it up, Charlie sits on the figure's face. Why does the respected public rage even more? Had he committed some kind of indiscretion? Charlie raises a gentleman's bowler hat - asks for forgiveness. He stands up, bows and puts his foot on the bent knee of another figure. His nose is in close proximity to the raised right hand Law. Without moving away, for several seconds he carefully examines the huge spread fingers, thus showing the audience a “long nose” ... No, Charlie is not a boy and did not think about pranks. However, he is ready to apologize.

The frenzy of the crowd reaches its climax. Well, Charlie has laced up his boot and can now retire. But the mayor of the city and two policemen - there are already two of them! - in vain they are waiting for him in the square with such impatience. Charlie prefers the other way. He slowly enters behind the monument, climbs over the bars and disappears...

The satirical beginning of the film is not connected with the plot further developments. But it does not seem artificial, superfluous, because it determines a certain perception by the audience of the then unfolding harmonious and simple - so typical of Chaplin - lyrical-comic drama. The satirical line will be continued here in scenes related to the image of a millionaire, and the deep social subtext of the first frames will serve as a justification for the sad mood that colors the whole story of the touching love of an unemployed tramp for a beautiful blind flower girl. Despite the abundance of comedic situations in the picture, flashes of carefree laughter could rarely occur in the hall. This is what Chaplin aspired to: after all, life, a piece of which he showed on the screen, is far from cheerful, and it can only cause laughter, full of bitterness and sadness.

Following the prologue, an exposition of the hero's image is given. Chaplin avoids everything superfluous, strives to be extremely economical. His acting and directing skills have become so perfect that it is enough for him to appear on the screen so that the audience can immediately judge the mood of the hero. A gait, a casual glance, a game with a cane, some short scene - and a person who had not even seen Charlie in any film before, penetrated into his inner world, into his character, into the circle of his interests and aspirations.

…A noisy intersection of a big city. On the corner - nimble newspaper boys. Charlie flanking past. His posture and manner are particularly stern and dignified, and his usual costume this time is complemented by gloves. The little tomboys obviously know something amusing about this unemployed man dressing and carrying himself with pretensions that only a well-to-do gentleman can match. They laugh at him; Charlie shakes his finger at them in response. The freckled boy grabs him by this finger, and ... the finger of the glove remains in his hands. Charlie takes back the ill-fated finger, removes another one, contemptuously clicks in front of the cheeky prankster's nose, puts back the parts of the torn glove and busily leaves, waving his cane.

In the window of a nearby shop, a bronze statue of a naked woman catches his eye. Charlie is at first shocked by her appearance and restrains his curiosity by looking at her bashfully out of the corners of his eyes. Still, standing in front of a piquant sculpture is indecent. However, there is a way out: after all, this is a work of art, and he can play out of himself a connoisseur, a connoisseur of true beauty. Charlie still approaches the window, then steps back, narrows his eyes in concentration, shields his eyes from the light with his hand, approaches again, examines, evaluates. Admiring the seductive forms of the statue, he again retreats further and further onto the sidewalk ... and almost falls into the gaping emptiness of the cargo hatch, the cover of which was lowered down by the worker. Once out on the sidewalk, Charlie yells indignantly at the open hatch, then bickers with a man half-emerging from the ground. But now the lid rises, the man standing on it is all upstairs, and his huge figure towers like a mountain above the little tramp. Frightened Charlie considers it best to retreat as soon as possible ...

When City Lights hit the screens, tens of millions of unemployed people in the United States and Europe could easily recognize themselves in Charlie from the prologue, understand what hardships he had to endure. In a short sketch with newspaper boys and at a shop window, the author deliberately emphasized those character traits of the hero that testified to his preservation, despite the trials, of his cheerfulness, readiness for a joke, a childish trick. Such an exposition not only reminded the audience of Charlie from previous films, but also created a particularly striking, truly tragic contrast of the hero's moods in the initial and final frames of the film.

The satirical colors of the prologue, the good-naturedly ironic sound of the subsequent scene were replaced further by the lyrical motifs of the main plot, increasingly alternating with dramatic ones.

In this film, for the first time, Chaplin was able to enrich the variety of his means of expression also with a musical palette. "City Lights" was not a sound picture in the full sense of the word - human speech had not yet sounded in it - but it was accompanied by music, and Chaplin himself wrote the score. In his own words, music was intended to become in the film "as if the soul of the action", to acquire the same significance as acting.

Indeed, the visual and musical effects here complement each other, create unified and organic characteristics of the plot positions and actors. Chaplin used music mainly as an emotional amplifier, but sometimes he also assigned dramatic functions to it. Leitmotifs, arising and alternating, sometimes replaced explanatory titles, facilitated transitions during parallel editing. In some cases, sound artistic images preceded visual ones. So, simultaneously with the introductory inscriptions to the film, a sharp, impetuous, full of mechanical fun motive sounds, expressing the elemental power of a seething capitalist city and its stormy onslaught on a person. The background images of bustling traffic, illuminated by the lights of advertisements and car headlights, emerging behind the credits, serve only as an illustration of the theme sounding in the music. This musical image of the big city, created at the very beginning, is repeatedly repeated in all cases of the hero's collision with the elements hostile to him.

The importance of sound in the prologue is especially great. With its help, the parody of the images of the “fathers” and “patronesses” of the city is revealed: Chaplin forced his grotesque characters to speak from the podium in gibberish, in a voice deliberately distorted by sound recording, but retained in their “speech” all the pompous intonations appropriate to the solemn occasion. The sonic contrast between this external loftiness and the complete meaninglessness of the content (highlighted by meaningful gestures and facial expressions) is the key to the satirical sound of the episode, to revealing the falsehood of what is happening [Such a varied (albeit limited due to lack of dialogue) use of sound in "City Lights" may seem at first glance to contradict Chaplin's well-known negative attitude towards this most important innovation in cinematography. In fact, there was no contradiction here: he did not speak against music and sound effects in films, but against "talking" characters, who, in his opinion, inevitably destroyed the pantomime art of the "great mute" created with difficulty. Such views, shared at that time by many prominent figures in the cinema of all countries, were explained by the primitiveness of the first sound films and the appearance of language barriers that deprived films of their international character. These objections fell away as speech from the screen ceased to be a mere technical addition to silent cinema and became an organic and extremely powerful medium. artistic expressiveness, as well as after the introduction of subtitling and the development of dubbing techniques that overturned language barriers.].

In the prologue, as well as during the exposition of the image of the main character in the scene with the boys and at the shop window, the musical leitmotif of the image of Charlie is heard for the first time, which will be continued and developed throughout the film.

A new leitmotif is introduced into the picture along with the image of the heroine. This is almost a song motif, lyrical and easy to remember [It was based on the famous waltz "Violet Saleswoman". In addition to musical themes composed directly by himself, Chaplin included in the score of the film (in processed form) small excerpts from several popular songs and dances, as well as classical works (Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, etc.).]. The softness and some thoughtful sadness of musical tones fully correspond to the visible colors of the image.

…Flowers! Gorgeous white flowers! In their frame, an obscure and calm face of a girl appears (Virginia Cherrill [Chaplin often invited not Hollywood celebrities spoiled by fame to play the main roles, but ordinary actors or even, as in this case, generally non-professionals.]). She sits by the garden trellis, at her feet a basket full of beautiful flowers. But in vain the blond saleswoman waits for buyers - her goods are not in demand in the difficult days of the crisis.

Near the sidewalk, not far from her, is someone's luxury limousine. A “traffic jam” suddenly forms next to him - a lot of cars impatiently crowded, flooding the street. Between them bustles on the pavement Charlie. He almost collides with a policeman sitting on a motorcycle. To avoid him, Charlie prudently opens the back door of an unoccupied limousine and walks through. Coming out on the other side of the sidewalk, he slams the door and sees a girl with a smile holding out a flower to him.

Struck by the beauty of the saleswoman, Charlie stops. Then he looks for a coin in his pockets, finds it and hands it to the girl. With a careless movement, he inadvertently knocks the flower out of her hands. The girl kneels down and fumbles with her hand along the asphalt, looking not down, but straight ahead and not paying attention to the worn-out shoes of the “gentleman”. Charlie has already picked up a flower from the sidewalk and is watching the girl in amazement. She turns her head and, although her eyes are now fixed on Charlie's hands, she asks, "Did you pick up the flower, sir?" Charlie silently holds it out. But she continues to wait for an answer to her question. A terrible truth is suddenly revealed to him: she is blind!

Charlie brings the flower to the girl's hand, the girl rises and pins it to the buttonhole of her jacket. Charlie respectfully and thoughtfully helps her into her seat. Shocked by the girl's misfortune, he steps back without taking his eyes off her. A gentleman in a top hat passes and gets into a limousine. The door slams, the car moves. A blind saleswoman reaches out in the direction of a departing limousine and shouts after her: “You should change, sir!”

That's it! She mistook Charlie for a car owner, maybe a millionaire who wasn't used to hitting back! And Charlie, on tiptoe, stealthily, holding his breath, cautiously moves away even further. Unable to leave completely, he quietly sits down on the same fence, near the fountain, continuing to look sadly at the beautiful blind flower girl ...

This whole episode is full of drama and lyricism, throughout its entire length the audience was never given a reason to laugh. True to his principle of alternating emotionally different scenes, Chaplin made a short comical interruption here: the girl approaches the fountain, rinses out a small bucket and, unaware of Charlie's presence, splashes the water right in his face.

The increased skill of the artist, honed by working with the detail in the "Parisian", was reflected even in this interruption. It serves not only its immediate goals, but also works for the tragicomic image of the hero: as usual, he is punished for his kindness, humanity. In this respect, the first meeting of the film's characters will echo their final meeting. And neither here nor there is the girl guilty of her actions. Charlie understands this, and the audience understood this too. The world forced the blind woman to seek salvation from starvation on the streets of the city. This same world inspired her misconceptions about human dignity, illusory dreams of happiness, inextricably linked with wealth. And, having begun to see clearly, seeing a beggar tramp instead of an elegant gentleman, as Charlie had previously been portrayed in her imagination, she will not even be able to hide her deep disappointment, involuntary horror and insulting feelings of pity.

Subtly resolved and the first meeting of Charlie with another hero of the picture - a millionaire (artist Harry Meyers). The little unemployed man has no shelter for the night. He wearily minces along the stone slabs of the embankment and sits down on a cold bench near the water. In his hands is still a flower bought from a blind girl. Despite the late hour, Charlie notices the presence of some respectably dressed person on the embankment and, raising the flower to his face, takes the form of a lover dreaming on a night walk.

However, what is this gentleman going to do, throwing a noose around his neck and now wrapping the other end of the rope around a stone that lies at his feet? .. Charlie follows his actions with frightened eyes. When the stranger picks up a stone and, staggering, walks with it to the water, he puts the flower on the bench and takes off. Having blocked the way for a reckless person who is about to drown himself, Charlie begins to speak with inspiration about the delights of life. The gentleman covers his face in horror with his hands - in fact, what an irreparable stupidity he almost committed! The stone thrown by him falls on the foot of the savior. Once again punished for his good intentions, the unfortunate Charlie jumps in place on one leg, clasping the other, the injured, in his arms. Having forced himself to forget about the pain, he continues to talk about the endless great and small joys of life - he, this most insignificant pariah, homeless and unemployed, deprived of everything that a person on earth can lose! And whom does he convince of the fabulous happiness of existence? A rich man who has access to everything in the world! ..

No expression can be read on the stupid, drunken face of the latter. He doesn't seem to hear anything anymore. Suddenly turning around, he grabs the noose again, throws it around his own neck and, without noticing it, at the same time, around the neck of Charlie standing behind him. The suicide leans for the load, the noose slipping off his head. He throws the load with force ... and after the stone, a small tramp, who loves life so passionately, flies into the water.

The subsequent shots, where the millionaire pulls Charlie out of the water twice and falls into it himself twice, are based on comic parallelism. In the end, the savior, soaked to the skin, and the rescued in an embrace, leave the embankment. They are escorted with a suspicious look by a suddenly appeared policeman, but Charlie remembers the flower left on the bench and returns for it. The millionaire, having sworn to him eternal friendship, leads him to his luxurious home. On the threshold they are met by a majestic butler. "What's new, James?" - asks the owner. "Your wife has sent for her things, sir." "Great," is the laconic reply.

This short dialogue and a photo of a young woman discarded by the millionaire explain to viewers the reason why he tried to commit suicide. The subsequent scenes in the house, and especially in the night restaurant, where the new "friends" went to hang out and where the tramp Charlie found himself in an unusual fashionable society, literally sparkle with comedic finds and tricks. Only at dawn do the “friends” leave the restaurant hall, convulsively twitching in the rhythm of a frantic foxtrot. Sitting in an open car latest issue, drunk millionaire takes the wheel. A powerful car writes monstrous loops on deserted streets, running into sidewalks, cutting corners and narrowly avoiding a catastrophe. Frightened Charlie begs: "Try to rule more carefully!" The millionaire turns to him, leaving the steering wheel completely to the mercy of fate, asks with surprise: “Am I driving?” Then Charlie hurriedly grabs the steering wheel, changes to the place of a millionaire and drives the car himself.

During the years of crisis, this episode was perceived as a transparent allusion to the inability of the capitalists to manage the state machine. It was precisely this kind of attacks by the artist on the socio-economic system that first of all determined the hostile attitude towards the film on the part of the American press.

The deep social subtext of all the scenes associated with the millionaire is emphasized by Chaplin with the theme of the big city sounding in the music. A single leitmotif connects, as it were, identifies these various images. Due to its constant repetition, the viewer has instant associations that give a generalizing meaning to the image of a millionaire as one of the arbiters of America's destinies. And not only the millionaire himself, sometimes drunk, sometimes sober, but sometimes his seemingly insignificant, random actions acquire symbolic meaning. In them you can guess either the rare and deceptive smile of fate bestowed on the mere mortal Charlie, or the ugly grimace of misfortune that lies in wait for the hero at every turn.

Here is a drunken millionaire giving Charlie his magnificent car and some money. Charlie buys a whole basket of flowers from a blind flower girl and takes the girl home in his car. But in the millionaire's mansion, where he returns, an unexpected chagrin awaits him: a rich “friend” who overslept and sobered up forgets about all the events of the previous night and does not even recognize Charlie. He orders the footman not to let him in, and then leaves in the car donated to him.

That evening, when the millionaire gets drunk again, they meet again. A feast is arranged, at which Charlie amuses the audience with his behavior and comic tricks. In the morning he wakes up in the bed of a millionaire. Having sobered up, he looks with bewilderment and disgust at yesterday's "friend", orders the footman to throw him out of the house.

Saddened, Charlie goes to the place where for the first time, surrounded by flowers, the girl smiled at him. He does not find her and, worried, hurries to her house.

Seeing a doctor and a girl lying in bed through the window, Charlie decides to help the patient. He takes the first job that comes across - a cleaner of sewage from the streets. But soon Charlie loses this disgusting occupation: after another visit to the patient with food and treats, he is late from his lunch break, and he is kicked out. Accompanying the hero in various vicissitudes of life (as a kind of subtext of the role), certain musical themes helped each time to penetrate deeper into his feelings and thoughts. If the image of Charlie the Flaner was revealed in the music with an intricate and funny melody in low registers, conveying the mincing rhythm of his gait, and in the satirical frames of the prologue and in some scenes with the millionaire his image was expressed by a quick motif tinged with humor, then in the lyrical scenes the mood of the hero is absolutely impossible. better characterized the softness and pensive sadness of the leitmotif of the blind girl. During his visits to the ailing flower girl, Charlie proves to be an attentive, touching, and eminently respectful cavalier. And one day he brings with him a newspaper, which reports that a visiting Viennese doctor successfully treats blindness. "Amazing. Then I could see you,” the girl says. Charlie sighs softly: in this case, she would know the whole truth - and he will lose her. But still, this should not be an obstacle. But where to get such big money? After all, there are not even a few dollars to pay the next payment for the room - the landlord threatens to evict the girl to the street the next morning.

Where to go, where to get a job in the age of "prosperity" - where, where? He tries his luck even in the ring, but, of course, is defeated. With a sluggish gait, in complete hopelessness, he wanders along a noisy and brightly lit night street of a big city in a crowd of careless, smartly dressed people. And suddenly he finds himself in the arms of a millionaire who has returned from a trip to Europe. At this hour, of course, he is drunk to smithereens. He takes Charlie with him, overwhelmed by the incessant twists and turns of fate.

The millionaire gives Charlie a thousand dollars to treat the girl. But robbers lurk in his house. They hit the millionaire with brass knuckles on the head, and he loses consciousness. Charlie manages to escape from their grasp and call the police. The robbers run away; a lackey and a policeman appear and suspect Charlie of the crime, in whose pocket they find a thousand dollars. When the millionaire comes to his senses, delighted Charlie rushes to him with hope, but a blow to the head knocked out any hops from the millionaire. Grimacing in pain, he looks at Charlie with unrepentant eyes. "Who is this person?" he asks the footman.

Confused and annoyed, Charlie squirms in the hands of a policeman. He looks sadly at the wad of money he is holding as evidence. Unexpectedly, he manages to free himself from the policeman with a deft maneuver. Taking the money out of his hands, he quickly runs away.

The girl's familiar room. Charlie gives the blind man all the money he obtained with such difficulty and dangers. She kisses his hand! .. Charlie will leave here forever - the law will inevitably overtake him, and he will have to pay dearly for his knighthood. But then the girl will be able to regain her sight. True, then he, a ragged and miserable beggar, will finally have to give up hope for her love. What of this? But she will see! And this is the main thing!

Charlie says goodbye: “I'll be back soon…” In his sad face and slightly bent figure, the viewer reads the whole complex range of experiences. The girl freezes without moving, does not find words to express her gratitude, overwhelmed by her feelings, and he hardly forces himself to cross the threshold of the door.

... The corner of the street where lively boys sell newspapers. They see Charlie approaching and intend to play another trick on him, but they do not have time: two tall detectives approach him and slam the handcuffs on his hands. Before entering the gloomy massive gates of the prison, Charlie, as a sign of farewell to freedom, with a gesture of disregard for the vicissitudes of fate and everyday hardships - a typical gesture of a London cockney - throws a cigarette butt over his shoulder and deftly throws it behind him with the sole of his boot.

Sheets fly off the calendar one after another. Lots of leaves. Sad autumn. Girl in front of a basket of white flowers. She is not sitting on the panel, not at the garden fence, but in a store with a large glassed-in window. The flower girl carefully lays out her goods, preens herself in front of the mirror - she is no longer blind. A splendid car pulls up outside the store, from which a slender dandy emerges. He orders flowers; the girl examines him closely, and then accompanies him with a long look and sighs. “I thought it was him,” she tells her grandmother.

On a familiar corner, very close to the flower shop, Charlie appears. He walks listlessly past the shop windows, his once-living eyes gone blank. His small figure seems to have become even smaller, and his nondescript costume has been torn to shreds. For the first time, he does not even have a cane, which, according to Chaplin, served as a symbol of his sense of dignity. Charlie's hands are shoved deep into his pockets from the cold. Wearily dragging his feet, he passes by his old acquaintances - newspaper sellers. They managed to noticeably stretch out and turn into young men. The mischief-makers, in their own way, welcome Charlie's arrival and greet him with a bombardment of peas. But now he is no longer inclined to flaunt in front of them and joke with them.

Suddenly, Charlie sees a white flower lying on the pavement. How much it reminds of! .. Charlie bends down to pick it up. At the back, from a hole in his baggy pants, the tip of a dirty shirt sticks out. The freckled boy jumps up, clings to him and pulls with force. Charlie almost falls, but the piece of cloth remains in the hands of the obnoxious boy. An enraged Charlie pursues him, he dodges and throws the torn off piece. Charlie picks it up, wipes his nose with it, and stuffs it into his side pocket instead of a handkerchief.

The girl sees the whole scene through the window and laughs merrily. Charlie is standing with his back, but then he turns and meets her eyes. Of course he recognizes her immediately! She smiles kindly and sympathetically. She is surprised by his gaze and laughingly throws to her assistant: "I seem to have won."

The look of the girl tells Charlie that she is happy with life, cheerful, beautifully dressed, and most importantly, she sees. It's good that she doesn't recognize him! With a crumbling flower, picked up on the pavement, Charlie stands at the window.

The girl is sorry for this funny ragamuffin. She takes a beautiful flower from the bouquet and hands it to Charlie, inviting him to come into the store. He stands still, still keeping his eyes on her. The girl guesses: he does not need a flower, but something else, more substantial. She takes a coin from the cash register, goes to the threshold and holds it out at the same time as the flower.

She offers him money! Terrified, he steps back. No, no, he will not accept this alms!

Still, Charlie cannot resist the temptation and, cautiously approaching, takes the flower. He does not utter a word so as not to be recognized by his voice. The girl forcibly puts a coin in his hand.

What's this? Why is this hand so familiar to her? She carefully touches her. Yes, this is the same hand that she once kissed in a fit of gratitude. One accidental touch explains everything to her. Now she understands the strange behavior of this tramp, his gaze. So this is her handsome prince, a generous benefactor who drove her in his own car when she was still blind and a beggar!

Charlie realizes that the girl recognized him. But still he doesn't say a word. Only sad, very sad smiles. Sorrow and joy are mixed in his expressive look. He holds a flower in his teeth, and a finger on his clenched lips seems to be begging for silence. She keeps looking at Charlie; she still has the same expression of confusion, deep despair and heartache. "Are you...?" He nods his head slightly at her.

She wanted to heal her eyes to see him! He tries to smile, gestures timidly into his eyes, and finally says, “Now do you see?”

The girl struggles to hold back her tears. "Yes, now I see." Charlie has a smile on his face. A smile that is immeasurably more painful than any tears ...

The ending is truly dramatic. The plot is not completed - the audience is left to guess the final denouement. However, a special fantasy is not required for this - the further actions of the heroes should be determined by the same cruel truth of life that permeates the whole simple and sad story told. The theme of the picture is exhausted, and the fact that the artist put an end to it at this moment speaks of the importance for him of the idea hidden in the subtext, and not plot intrigue as such.

"City Lights" was a kind of synthesis of two through lines of Chaplin's creativity. In terms of the critically realistic denunciation of the social vices of capitalist society, this was a new step after The Life of a Dog, The Pilgrim and The Parisienne, the threshold of the frankly satirical pamphlet Modern Times. In terms of the comic development of lyrical and dramatic motifs, the film completed the cycle, which included The Wanderer, The Kid, The Gold Rush and The Circus. Perhaps, thanks to the organic nature of this synthesis, unsurpassed by the artist, "City Lights" was his best creation.

Twenty years after this film the lyrical current of Chaplin's art will not abate: the catastrophes of the economic crisis and the tragedies of the Second World War will dry up its source. Only in "Ramp Lights" will the artist turn to him again to warm the life-giving warmth of human feeling to the devastated soul of the old clown.

In "City Lights" the viewer is immersed in an atmosphere of unusually pure beauty hidden in ordinary people. In Chaplin's hero there is so much spiritual wealth, wholesome feelings, real courage in the struggle with life, he has such a developed consciousness of his human dignity, duty to others, so strong is the desire for happiness, which he saw primarily in making others happy, that his image is already a certain moral ideal of man. And thus, his fate, experiences, the paths of life that he chose - and which he may choose in the future - acquired a universal significance.

In City Lights, Chaplin finally completed the formation artistic image your hero. This image is not simple; its significance is determined primarily by the fact that it is the product of an entire era in the development of bourgeois society. His tiny fate reflects the big Chaplin theme - the theme of freedom. common man from want and oppression, the theme of the struggle for human happiness. This theme has already determined the content of many short films, but only in "City Lights" was it first revealed so deeply that it made the audience seriously think about the fate of the hero and ask themselves: what paths of life should he choose?

Chaplin did not give an answer to this question here, but, obviously, he himself felt the urgent need for it. In any case, in two later paintings, he will try to do this.

Charlie is a man from the bottom, and he represents a positive beginning in Chaplin's comedic art. Of course, his fate and the history of his tragicomic misadventures could not fully reflect the life and struggle populace United States of America. The artist did not claim it. But in Chaplin's hero some essential features, both positive and negative, found expression, to a certain extent, typical of the average American. These traits will largely determine the future path of the hero.

In "City Lights" the wind of modern events has already burst into an unsettled corner of Charlie's life, but has not yet awakened his consciousness. The artist showed that his hero is far from understanding the most elementary truths of the social and political order. He is not even able to correctly evaluate and accordingly relate to people at the very top and at the very bottom of the social ladder, with whom his fate confronts.

In his eternal enemy, the millionaire Charlie, despite understandable wariness, saw all of her only as a nice and kind fellow when he was drunk, and sincerely perplexed and upset when this "unfortunate friend", who was experiencing his wife's betrayal, after sobering up, disgustedly pushed him away from myself.

At the same time, Charlie is capable of showing contempt, even cruelty, towards poor people like himself. There is an episode in the film that could cause legitimate bewilderment because of its seeming dissonance with the whole logic of the development of the character of the hero: getting out of a luxury car given to him by a drunken millionaire, Charlie knocked down a pitiful beggar and took away a cigarette butt picked up from the sidewalk.

In the mature art of Chaplin, the element of chance, ill-conceivedness was almost excluded. Behind Charlie's cruel act, reminiscent of the techniques of early "violent" short comedies, there was a certain psychological meaning. Charlie was under constant influence environment, and his act is the result of this influence, an involuntary tribute to time. It is highly symptomatic, and it contains features that could in their further development lead the hero to accept the wolf laws of the prevailing morality, to adapt to the surrounding reality. This one of the possible ways of developing the image of Charlie from the film "City Lights" will receive its logical and tragic conclusion in the subsequent work of Charles Chaplin.

Another possible path led the hero in a diametrically opposite direction. The unemployed Charlie, who supported his existence by odd jobs, was characterized by complete apathy; in this, he differed from the majority of American working people, although those for the most part, too, ideologically, have not yet comprehended the class struggle that they themselves were waging. Unlike organized workers, Charlie generally stood aside from any struggle. He is an individualist, devoid of a sense of the collective. Charlie accepted the injustices and blows that life constantly inflicted on him as something inevitable. He did not bow his head, but he defended himself alone and therefore suffered defeat after defeat.

The story of Charlie, told in City Lights, is actually the story of the death of all and sundry illusions. Charlie naively believed in kindness, in the disinterestedness of human relations, in friendship and love. But after fate pushed him against the millionaire businessman he saved from death, he became convinced that kindness, gratitude, and friendship are deceptive, unreal in this world. A millionaire is like a man only when he is drunk; in the usual, sober state, this is just a cold businessman. Because of the same invisible but powerful power of money, Charlie's modest, unspoken hopes for personal happiness, the collapse of his last illusions, also collapsed. Chaplin returned sight in the film not only to the heroine, but also to the hero. That is why the farewell look of the artist's amazingly expressive eyes is so infinitely sad and tragic in the finale.

The story of Charlie's selfless and noble love for a poor flower girl was one plot outline of the movie; the story of his “friendship” with a drunkard millionaire is the second outline. But both of them were closely intertwined with each other and served the same purpose: they debunked the democratic illusions and idealistic ideas of the hero about a society built on class inequality. By the end of the picture, Charlie began to realize many sad truths; the defeats that he suffered from life made his former blind existence, aimless vagrancy, completely unthinkable.

The next film, "New Times", will be a natural and logical continuation of the story of fate little man who took the path of protest for the first time. And although this film will be solved by traditional comedic means, Chaplin nevertheless affirmed in it for his hero precisely the path of protest, and in the later, Monsieur Verdu, he debunked the path of adaptation to capitalist reality. This fact has, of course, great value to understand the progressive outlook of the artist.

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“To make a comedy, all I need is a park, a policeman and beautiful girl”, - said the most famous comedian of the world, Charlie Chaplin. Moreover, he never specified the proportions of these three components, he simply took them as a basis and told another story: tender, a little sad, romantic and infinitely funny, which the audience invariably took with a bang. The film "City Lights" was no exception.

A tramp (Charlie Chaplin) wanders aimlessly through the streets. In fact, everything suits him in this restless life. Wake up in the park in the arms of a statue, tease a clumsy policeman a little, but most importantly, do not report to anyone for anything, do not obey. What else can you dream of?!

Fleeting hooliganism, the slamming of a closed door of a luxury car, an absurd confusion. The tramp just wanted to help a poor flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) by buying a flower from her with her last money, but suddenly his life changed dramatically. And how else, because the girl, being completely blind, takes the Tramp for a millionaire. And now the careless hooligan has an important mission - to brighten up the life of his beloved.

The idea for the plot came to Chaplin when he heard about a circus clown who was blinded in an accident. The circus performer had a little daughter, extremely sickly and nervous, and before being discharged from the hospital, the doctor warned the patient that he should hide the illness from his daughter for as long as possible. At home, the clown constantly stumbled, bumping into furniture, and the girl laughed merrily: it seemed to her that her father was playing with her. However, Chaplin decided that such a movie would be too sentimental for his format, so instead of a blind clown, a girl selling flowers appears in his film.

Sincerely believing that the start of filming on New Year's Eve bodes well, on December 31, 1927, Charles Spencer Chaplin, or simply Charlie Chaplin, sat in the director's chair and shouted: “Camera! Motor!" Nevertheless, work on the film "City Lights" stretched out for a long three years: the Great Depression began in America. The stock market crash paralyzed almost all spheres of life in American society, and cinema was no exception. but new job Chaplin benefited from the delay: having started shooting Lights in the era of silent films, the director finished the film when the sound was already there. So in "City Lights" Charlie Chaplin acted not only as a director, screenwriter, producer and, of course, an actor. In addition, he wrote the music for the film.

The American Film Institute ranked City Lights #1 on their list of the 10 best romantic comedies of all time. But the most important thing is that even now, 80 years after the release of the film on the screens, the picture enjoys the same success with the audience. No one has been able to reveal the secret of Chaplin's mastery yet. He had hundreds of imitators, but the viewer invariably returns to Chaplin's films and, revisiting, again laughs, cries, empathizes with the heroes faced with the injustice of this big and cruel world, who, in spite of everything, do not lose the ability to sympathize and love.