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Um Chaplin superstimado em minha opini

Films between January 28, 2004 - January 31, 2004.

Hearts of Darkness - An interesting, but overlong documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now. There is some great behind-the-scenes footage of the struggles that the cast a crew faced while making the classic war film.

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Ministry of Fear - A very good noir film from Fritz Lang. Ray Milland is excellent, as always.

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Chinatown - Roman Polanski's classic noir lives up to its expectations.

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City Lights - The best Chaplin film that I have seen.

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The Age of Innocence - Martin Scorsese's lush period piece is possibly his best film. Great performances help make this an emotional experience.

Second Chaplin movie I've seen so far. And I must say I prefer the other one, Modern Times, over this one.
Not to say there is nothing to enjoy here, the slapstick scenes are wonderful and the drama, although extremely sentimental, works at times.
I also appreciated the contrast of the rich and the poor.

This is far and away the best Chaplin film I've ever seen. I haven't seen many, so maybe that isn't saying much, but I've seen a few of what are considered his best films(Gold Rush, Modern Times), and this beats them all.

It is such a beautiful film, at times quite touching, and at other times genuinely funny. I say that because a lot of times for me classic comedy just doesn't hold up. Call me a cynic if you will, but much of it just isn't funny.

First off, the boxing scene was fantastic. It had wonderful choreography and some very funny moments, such as the bell getting wrapped around The Tramp's neck.

That's another thing about the film. Even in 1931, Chaplin seemed to know what audiences would be expecting and defied those conventions. The boxing ring is one of those scenes. I won't get any more elaborate than to say what you think is going to happen doesn't always happen. He avoids certain cliches, and I don't even think they were cliches back then.

His performance is wonderful as always. Virginia Cherrill is also very good as the blind woman who wins the affection of our Tramp. She is very convincing in the part, and as is marvelous in the conclusion of the film.

With an absolutely perfect ending that in no way could have been written better, this film is definitely one for the collection. It is a remarkable achievement and will certainly be sitting on my DVD shelf in the near future.

City Lights
Chaplin, 1931



City Lights was my first Charlie Chaplin film and now I'm certain it won't be my last. I don't know of many characters who can break your heart so easily as Chaplin's Tramp. Even when he was making me laugh out loud he was making me sigh at the romantic beauty behind his scenes with the blind flower girl. The many hardships he faced for love of her included both classic slapstick comedy and heartbreaking beauty. I don't think I'll ever forget the final scene of the film in which the blind flower girl, now given sight thanks to the Tramp, recognizes him and finally sees who he really is. Aside from beind a thoroughly enjoyable, though somewhat over-the-top comedy, this is at heart a classic story of love and sacrifice.

ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT AND MOVING FILMS OF ALL TIMES, ABSOLUTE CHAPLIN GENIUS.

I saw this in elementary school and decided it was time to see this again. It's a fine work of slapstick comedy and light-hearted romaticism. It's a wonderful love story told with a good sentimentality. I didn't LOVE it, but it was a good time.

B+:fresh:

I watched my first Charlie Chaplin feature two days ago, City Lights, which is quite possibly one of the funniest films ever made. Man, I've seen a couple of Chaplin's shorts, and this man really is a genius. And it really sucks he never really made it into the sound era. And I'm not sure if that was personal choice or not, but regardless, it sucks.

City Lights is about a tramp, played by Chaplin, who has an off and on again drunken friendship with a wealthy man. After saving this man's life, they become friends, but, the man only remembers the tramp while he's intoxicated. When the tramp is friends with the wealthy guy, he sort of becomes a wealthy as well. Soon after, he meets and falls in love with a blind woman. The first thing he does is buy her whole basket of flowers for ten dollars. The relationship starts, and she thinks he's wealthy.

The movie is brilliant. Everyone should check out City Lights if you haven't already seen it.

Yesterday I watched David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, which was one of the most bizarre films I've ever seen, but strangely beautiful. It's based on the novel Naked Lunch, as well as other short stories by writer William Burroughs. Cronenberg wrote the screenplay, taking aspects from Burroughs' books, and his life, which in itself is pretty fascinating.

If you were like me before seeing the film, and know nothing about it, that's the best way to go into it. It completely caught my off guard. I had to do a lot of research on this film, because I didn't exactly get it. I soon found out that I really wasn't intended to. I guess it made sense in a nonsensical kind of way. That doesn't make too much sense, I guess, but it will once you see it. It's an awesome, intriguing film. Check it out.

In my film history class today we watched Casablanca. I'd seen the film a couple times before, and always considered it a huge bore. I felt the same way about Citizen Kane until I saw it in another class again last semester. I don't know what happened to be between seeing the films the first couple times and now, but I have way more appreciation for them.

Casablanca was just wonderful. Man, I seriously don't understand how I could ever have found it boring. It is truly a classic in every way possible.

****/****

One of the greats. Second viewing confirmed.