Introduction
Like any work of arts, films depict the creators’ thoughts and beliefs which provide important insights about the society’s culture at the time. For this reason, movies that capture human truth in the most creative way tend to be immortalized as they remain popular decades after their production. On other occasions, the perception that the society upholds towards the film’s director might determine the popularity of a specific movie. These concepts are well-illustrated in Charlie Chaplin’s movie ‘City Lights’ which was released in 1931. ‘City Lights’ tells a simple and charming story that captures the hypocrisy and class-stratification of the American community. Even though the movie received significant criticism for being released as a ‘silent film’ at a time when Hollywood was moving into sounds, the message of the story coupled by Chaplin’s popularity immortalized the film. Almost eight decades later, ‘City Lights’ is still recognized as a masterpiece romantic comedy. This paper summarizes Charlie Chaplin’s film ‘City Lights’ by applying the concepts of story and plot before analyzing it through the lens of the auteur theory. Furthermore, the paper evaluates the use of three techniques and designs as they contribute to the overarching narrative and the theme of the story. Lastly, the paper describes the connection between the film and the society before drawing conclusions about its impact.
Overview
A story is described as a timeline of events while the plot expresses the rationale t inform the audience why the series of specific events belong together. The two have to work together to communicate the intended message because failure to include a plot reduces a story to history. Additionally, a plot without a story will not make sense as the reader will be given explanations of non-existing or non-contextual events. As such, the story and plot must work together to reveal the intended message in a creative but in an understandable way. In the opening scene of ‘City Lights’, a group of dignitaries is assembled for an unveiling ceremony of the ‘Peace and prosperity’ monument. However, as the veil falls a wretched figure of Tramp i.e. leading character played by Chaplin is seen. Tramp’s trousers are hooked on the sword held by a reclining statue. Tramp’s depiction acts as a smudge on valuable work and thus the dignitaries are not happy forcing him to flee the angry ensemble.
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Later on that day, Tramp goes through a series of mishaps with the police, insolent newsboy and a trapdoor in a pavement before coming across a beautiful blind lady selling flowers on the streets. The lady’s beauty and poignancy move Tramp but before starting a conversation with the girl, a rich man parks his limousine at the sidewalk and slams the door which leads the girl to believe that Tramp is rich. On the same evening, Tramp dissuades the erratic and alcoholic millionaire from committing suicide forming a new acquaintance. Unfortunately, the millionaire can only recognize Tramp when he is drunk. Therefore, in the morning after the newly acquired friend sobers up he throws Tramp out of his mansion. Tramp roams in search of the blind flower girl but finds her absent. Later Tramp learns that she is sick and her treatment requires an expensive operation in Switzerland. Moved by her situation, Tramp vows to help the lady but his attempts to find jobs are futile. Tramp runs into the millionaire who recognizes him because he is drunk. The millionaire gives Charlie the money that he needs but before Tramps passes it on to the girl, the rich man sobers up and accuses him that he had stolen from him. Tamp manages to escape and gets the money to the flower girl but he is apprehended and taken to prison for several months. After serving his time, Tramp gets out and realizes that the bling girl is cured and runs her own flower shop but he cannot approach her because she has never seen his face. Latter on Tramp passes by the shop and picks a crushed flower on the pavement, the lady is amused and so she offers him a fresh rose and a coin but when their hands touch she notices that the vagrant was her benefactor.
Analysis
Cinema techniques in ‘City Lights’
According to the auteur theory, the director is viewed as the creator of the film. Note that the term auteur is French for ‘author (Chaudhuri, 2013) ’. As the term suggests, a movie should reflect the director’s artistic vision which means that a film directed by a specific director will have visual cues and recurring themes that enables the viewer to recognize the director. In other words, the director’s vision and creativity should be expressed in the movie in such a way that the audience can view the movie and know the director responsible for directing the film. ‘City Lights’ which was written and directed by Charlie Chaplin who also played the leading character of the Tramp is an excellent example of the auteur model. The silent movie has the so-called Chaplin’s mise-en-scene such as music and the use of eyes to express moving emotions. As mentioned before, ‘City Lights’ is a silent movie as it does not have spoken dialogue.
However, the sound is used in the film to convey a recurrent idea associated with the leading characters. Note that recurrent themes are often referred to as leitmotifs and they serve to drive and energize the segments that are being presented visually thus sustaining the dynamic tempo of the movie. In ‘City Lights’ sound is given a rhetoric purpose as its presence serves to remark about something which could be interpreted as Chaplin’s contempt or refusal to abide by the authority. This point is well-demonstrated by considering the opening scene where a group of dignitaries is gathered to unveil the statue of prosperity. The dignitaries give their speeches in an ‘illustrious’ way. By distorting their voices, Charlie Chaplin expresses social satire as he ridicules those who consider themselves to be the society’s elites but in reality, they are governed by materialism and are short-sighted about actual issues in their community (Tregde, 2013) .
Other than the music, Chaplin placed significant importance on the aspect of sight. Since ‘seeing the true nature of the situation’ was a central theme in the film placing significant attention on eyes and facial expressions replaced the need for dialogue. In the movie, the Tramp’s eyes and eyebrows are highlighted with makeup to create a sense of transparency and innocence. When it comes to the bling flower girl, her sight is directed outwards and her facial expression is that of poignancy that moves the audience allowing him/her to share in Tramp’s sympathy for the girl. In other words, the blind flower girl’s eyes and facial expression portrays her as a gentle and graceful. The same features i.e. eyes and facial expression have been emphasized in other characters like the mercurial millionaire and Tramp’s boxing opponent.
Chaplin cinematography in ‘City Lights’ captures his sense of humor. By looking at the film, it is apparent that the Chaplin invested significant effort in editing. The characters’ movements are often rapid and choppy as a result of increased speed and sudden interruptions of the images that result in a psychological effect. The psychological cinematography is coupled with effective lighting. For instance, settings, where something bad is about to happen, were darker compared to others. These scenes were often accompanied sounds that warned of the impending event while adding humor making the mood thus relieving the tension without losing the viewer’s attention.
The Connection between ‘City Lights’ and the Society
As mentioned before, movies are an expression of the creator(s) beliefs and thoughts which provide a glimpse into the society’s culture at the time. In the film, several themes can be identified and they include social-economic stratification, suffering and, loyalty. It is apparent that the society that is captured in Chaplin’s film is divided by class that seems impenetrable. For instance, the rich millionaire can only recognize Tramp when he is drunk but once he sobers up he fails to remember that Tramp had saved him. The rich millionaire is only able to transcend the class difference when he is intoxicated which demonstrates the impunity and shortsightedness of the upper class. At the time when the film was released, the American society was suffering from Great depression which had left millions of people unemployed. As such, people belong to the low class suffered immensely as they could not afford basics like food and shelter but the policies adopted by the government did not offer any relief. Alternatively, the upper class seemed unaware of the extent of the suffering of people belonging to the low social economic cluster. From the presented points, it can be argued that Charlie Chaplin’s movie demonstrated the economic clash that existed in America after World War 1 which affected the social, political and, economic domains of the American society.
Another theme that is expressed in ‘City Lights’ is loyalty. The blind flower girl seems to trust the Tramp as she thinks that he is rich. At the same time, the millionaire seems to only trust Tramp when he is drunk but once he sobers up he treats Tramp like any other vagrant. By considering both perspectives, the director illustrates that loyalty is inconsistent as it is driven by desires that are subjective to change. As such, it can be argued that the loyalty that the girl develops towards Tramp as she assumes that he is rich is depicted as human desires for materialistic achievement. Hence accusing the upper class of being narrow-minded would be inaccurate because it is human characteristics. In summary, the themes in ‘City Lights’ illustrates the hypocrisy that exists in modern society. However, people rarely get their head around this notion because every individual approaches the subject from a point of view that is dictated by his/her situation
Conclusion
Based on the presented points, ‘City Lights’ is a reflection of its director’s beliefs, vision and, creativity. Other than employing unique cinematography that brings out themes in a comical way, Charlie Chaplin involved actors and actresses who could communicate the intended message in a flawless manner. Even though it has been over 8 decades since its release the message portrayed in ‘City Lights’ is still applicable in everyday life. Hence it can be concluded that Charlie Chaplin’s mastery led to the creation of a universal piece of work that has remained relevant over 80 years after its creation.
References
Chaudhuri, A. (2013). Auteur Theory. International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, 2 (11).
Tregde, D. (2013). A Case Study on Film Authorship: Exploring the Theoretical and Practical Sides in Film Production. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 4 (2).
