City Lights

Date
Hour
Place
31/07
20:30
CASTLE, JANOWIEC


City Lights
reż|dir Charlie Chaplin | US | 1931 | 97 min
prod|pro Charles Chaplin scen|wr Charlie Chaplin zdj|ph Gordon Pollock, Roland Totheroh muz|mus Charles Chaplin mon|ed Charles Chaplin, Willard Nico ob|cast Charles Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Florence Lee

DESCRIPTION

A group of civic dignitaries are assembled for the unveiling of a monument representing “Peace and Prosperity”. The veil falls - to reveal, cradled in the arms of “Prosperity”, the wretched figure of the Tramp. After getting hooked by his trousers on the sword held aloft by a recumbent statue, he flees from the angry assembly. Later in the day, after a series of mishaps with police, insolent newsboys and a trapdoor in the pavement, he comes upon a blind flower-seller. He is moved by her pathos and beauty, while the chance slamming of a car door leads her to believe he must be a rich man. That evening he dissuades an erratic and alcoholic millionaire from suicide. This new acquaintance proves an affectionate and generous friend when drunk, but distant and hostile in his sober moods, the morning after. Finding the flower girl absent from her place on the street corner, the Tramp visits the poor room where she lives. He learns that she is ill, but that a costly operation in Switzerland could restore her sight. In an effort to raise the money for the unpaid rent on her apartment he works as a street cleaner and as a prize fighter.

Luckily he again encounters the millionaire, who gives him the money he needs. He is able to pass it onto the girl before he is accused of robbing the millionaire - once again sober and forgetful - and is thrown into gaol. Months later he is released, and by chance passes the elegant flower shop in which the now-cured flower girl is established, always hoping to meet her benefactor whom she supposes to be rich and handsome. She is amused by the passing vagrant, takes pity on him, and gives him a flower and a coin. Pressing them into his hand, she recognises him by touch. The two gaze enigmatically into each other’s eyes.

CO-ORGANIZAR | Arttech Cinema

www.arttechcinema.pl


DIRECTOR
Charles "Charlie" Chaplin (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best-known for his work during the silent film era. He used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency by the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of “The Tramp”, which he first played in “Kid Auto Races” (1914). From 1914 onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was producing them, and by 1918 he was also composing the music for them. In 1919 he co-founded United Artists. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male screen legend of all time.

© Festiwal Filmu i Sztuki Dwa Brzegi Kazimierz Dolny Janowiec nad Wisłą
Projekt i realizacja: Tomasz Żewłakow