Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights”
In 1929, America experience a financial depression unlike anything ever seen in history. The Great Depression would go on to last until early 1933, in which American film studios would utilize the newfound technology of sound to release talking pictures that were frivolous in nature, so as best to distract the nation from the woes they faced. Charlie Chaplin knew that the era of the silent film was coming to an end but decided to make one last silent picture (until he decided once again to make one final stamp on the silent era 5 years later with Modern Times). Charlie, who had never made a film for a depression-era audience did what he knew to do best, mix the frivolity of laughter with the emotion of drama. With this foundation, he made what some consider the greatest of his work, City Lights, in 1931.
The film opens with a crowd awaiting the unveiling of a new city statue. Political figures are giving speeches to the crowd before the unveil. Chaplin, in a jab to the talking pictures that were taking off at the time, decided to use sound for these speeches – however, he uses mimicked talking as if to suggest that what is actually being said by those politicians giving speeches is not worth listening to – both in the sense that what they are saying is empty and meaningless and in the sense that Chaplin believed talking pictures to be the end of the important artform of visual cinema; and the mimicked speech suggests that what people are saying in talking pictures is not as important and the visual artistry.
After the statue gets unveiled, it is revealed that the Tramp has been sleeping on the statue. After he is woken, he is ushered off by police. It is evident from Chaplin’s film that the Tramp is very representative of not only a literal tramp, but the impoverished American as well. At the opening of this film, the impoverished tramp cannot help but sleep in public, as he has no place of his own and no money for any sort of lodging. The character of the Tramp seems to be best representative of more average citizens during the economic crisis of 1929, which brought poverty to over 12 million people. The situations and common happenings of the Tramp seemed more like a reality to many.
It is then that the Tramp meets the love interest of the story – a blind girl who sells flowers on the street. When Chaplin first introduces us to this character, he first shows us a shot of flowers. He then dissolves the image of the flowers as the face of the girl emerges, superimposed over the flowers. Chaplin utilizes this technique to illustrate the point of the character and how the viewer should be feeling towards her. Generally speaking, flowers are meant to evoke feelings of sweetness, purity, or romance – and using this dissolve creates this mentality in the viewer that this woman is a sweet, pure, or romantic character in the story, rather than using some sort of exposition that would be provided by any sort of sound in the picture.
As the Tramp is moving through traffic in the street, he enters into a limousine and exits on the other side in order to cross the street. After doing so, the flower girl hears the sound of the limo door being slammed and assumes that the person who exited it is a person of wealth. This notion remains the driving point of the rest of the story as the Tramp tries to woo the girl from this point forward. He does not realize that she is blind until she tries to pick up the flower peddle that was dropped and he does not realize that she believes him to be wealthy until she assumes he left after someone re-enters the limo and slams the door again. It is at this point that the Tramp believes that he must acquire money in order for this girl to still be interested in him.
We are then shown a dark street by the river in which a well-dressed drunk man is trying to tie himself to a rock so that he can drown himself in the river. The way in which Chaplin lights this scene is incredibly resonant. He uses a stark contrast between the dark shadows and the light. The use of heavy darkness in this scene is meant to give mood to the dark nature of what is occurring. Even though there are plenty of laughs in this scene, the dark subject matter is still the backdrop of what is occurring. Chaplin does not let you forget the darkness behind the scene by keeping the darkness in the frame. Another great aspect of this scene is the fact that the drunk wealthy man must travel down the stair to get the side of the river below. He must travel from up high (as congruent with his social post) and travel to the depths of despair and to the lowest point of his life (made visual by the descent down the stairs).
It is unclear why the drunken rich man wants to end his life, but the sight of the upper-class ending is all was not uncommon during the Depression era. The Tramp saves the rich man from ending his life and the rich man drunkenly takes the Tramp back to his home to celebrate. The two celebrate for the rest of the right until the rich man sobers up and realizes that he has brought a homeless tramp into his home. The rich man does not see him and the Tramp as equals unless he is intoxicated. This notion is something Chaplin explores a lot in his stores – the notion of inequality that was becoming exercised during the Industrial Boom of the 20th century. He explores these themes a great bit more in his 1925 film, The Gold Rush.
The Tramp then decides to take on a job so that he can afford to provide the blind girl with money for her rent, otherwise she faces eviction. He takes up a job as a street sweeper until he gets fired for being late. He then must go into the boxing ring to fight for wages, only to lose. It is with this that Chaplin expresses his concern for the lower class – that they must either gruel away at a pitiful excuse for a job or they must fight each other in order to survive. The Tramp, being representative of the lower classes, emulates the notion that even though he is trying to do better for himself, he cannot seem to climb the ladder of success, as societal structures are actively working against any upward movement he attempts.
It is then that Chaplin illustrates the only way for money-lacking citizens to come by any means – to parasitically leach off of the rich. The Tramp once again is looking for means to provide for the blind girl and even more, find money for surgery to restore her vision. He finds these funds from the rich man from earlier, who is now drunk again and has welcomed the tramp. The Tramp can only seem to interact with the rich man when he is drunk, something the Tramp takes advantage of. The Tramp is able to procure the money from the rich man to give to the girl – even as robbers invade the rich man’s home and incidentally leaves the Tramp to be the suspected burglar by the police (to which the Tramp is able to evade capture). Chaplin seems to suggest that the only way to get by is to somehow acquire from those who have it, either by warming up to them or by outright stealing from them altogether. This points to the sheer desperation for those who live in this society and the difficult means of maintaining success in it – a sharp criticism of the effects of capitalism which point to a society in which those at the bottom become dependent on those at the top; brought on by an even more critical spotlight from the effects of the economic collapse.
The Tramp is able to get the money to the blind girl and leaves for good, as the blind girl would not want to be with a dirty tramp after her eye surgery. However, when the Tramp happens upon the blind girl again, she recognizes his touch and is unashamed of her love for him, despite his unkept appearance. Chaplin shows us a close-up of the girl rubbing her hands on the Tramp’s. This direct shot is meant to convey the meaning of the girl’s realization of who she is talking to. Rather than just showing a medium of the two while she is rubbing his hand, he shows us directly the hands themselves. This directness is meant to cut away to the meat of what is occurring, instilling in the viewer the understanding that she recognizes him.
The girl sees her admirer for the first time and is unashamed in her mutual admiration. Chaplin smiles as the film ends, giving us the greatest shot in the film: his bashful and blissful smile. His happiness comes with the notion that the girl still sees the Tramp as a human being and equal to her. Where the rich man could only see the Tramp as an equal when he was intoxicated, the girl cannot help but disregard his social and economic stature and love him for himself – a form of human connection that the Tramp has never experienced. Chaplin’s final scene is one of love and romance but also of the faith in the human spirt. In times of hardship and social and economic turmoil, Chaplin believed that the dignity of human connection could shine through. Even through all of the economic oppression the Tramp has experienced, someone was able to see him for what he is, not an waste to the economic system that so many Americans were experiencing during this time, but as a human being and someone worthy of love.
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