City Lights begins with an uproarious skewering of pomp and formality, ends with one of the most famous last shots in movie history and, from start to finish, so completely touches the heart and tickles the funny bone that in 1998 it was named one of the American Film Institute’s Top-100 American Films. Talkies were well entrenched when Charles Chaplin swam against the film-making tide with this forever classic that’s silent except for music and sound effects. The story, involving the Tramp’s attempts to get money for an operation that will restore sight to a blind flower girl, provides the star with an ideal framework for sentiment and laughs. The Tramp is variously a street sweeper, a boxer, a rich poseur, and a rescuer of a suicidal millionaire. His message is unspoken, but universally understood: love is blind.
- All-new digital transfer from Chaplin family vault picture and audio elements.
- Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as Original 1.0 Mono.
- Interactive Menus
- Scene Access
- Languages : English (5.1), French, Italian (1.0)
- Subtitles : English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, Dutch.
- Hearing Impaired : English, French, Italian Special.
City Lights
Special Features:
- Introduction by David Robinson 6 Mins. Chaplin’s biographer sets the film in its historical and cinematic context.
- Chaplin Today: City Lights 26 mins.Documentary by Serge Bromberg with the participation of the animation artist and director Peter Lord.
- Out-takes 7 mins. Charlie tries to disengage a sliver of wood stuck in a sidewalk grating.
- The Champion (1915) 7 mins. Excerpt. Charlie Stages a balletic boxing match, 15 years before City Lights
- Shooting. 8 mins.On the set of the famous scene in which Charlie and the flower girl first meet, filmed by Ralph Barton.
- Georgia Hale screen test 7 Mins. The screen test made by the actress of The Gold Rush when Chaplin thought of replacing Virginia Cherrill as the flower girl.
- The Dream Prince 1 Min. A discarded idea for how the flower girl imagines her benefactor.
- Rehearsal 1 Min. Chaplin works out the staging of a complicated scene.
- Chaplin and boxing stars 4 Mins. Chaplin playfully boxes with professional prize fighters visiting his studios.
- Winston Churchill’s visit 2 Mins. Britain’s future prime minister visits Chaplin during the shooting of City Lights
- Chaplin speaks! 3 Mins. In 1931 Vienna during his triumphant European tour, Chaplin speaks for the first time on film.
- Trip to Bali 10 Mins. Footage shot when Charlie and Sydney Chaplin visited Bali in 1932.
- Photo gallery Photos of the production and of the actors.
- Film posters
- Trailers 8 Mins.
- The Chaplin Collection 12 Mins.
