MENU   

City Lights

(book in English)

by Charles J. Maland

Type
Studies
Subject
One FilmCity Lights
Keywords
Charlie Chaplin, silent cinema
Publishing Date
2007
Publisher
BFI Publishing
Collection
BFI Film Classics
Language
English
Size of a pocketbookRelative size of this bookSize of a large book
Relative size
Physical desc.
Paperback • 272 pages • 12,93 €
5 ¼ x 7 ½ inches (13.5 x 19 cm)
ISBN
978-1-8445-7175-8
User Ratings
no rating (0 vote)

Average rating: no rating

0 rating 1 star = We can do without
0 rating 2 stars = Good book
0 rating 3 stars = Excellent book
0 rating 4 stars = Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Report incorrect or incomplete information

Book Presentation:
In 1967, Charlie Chaplin told an interviewer, "I think I like City Lights the best of all my films." Speaking of the film's famous ending, James Agee wrote that "it is enough to shrivel the heart to see." Although City Lights had a long and extremely difficult production history, the final film, in Alistair Cooke's apt words, flows "like water over pebbles, smooth and simple for all to see with no hint of the groaning pressure that had gone into it." It could easily have been otherwise. Chaplin began the film in 1927, even before the release of The Circus, just months after a highly publicized divorce from his second wife and a tax dispute with the U.S. government, both of which cost him dearly. In addition, Chaplin's mother, with whom he had a close and complex relationship, died in August 1928. Besides the burden of these financial and emotional strains, Chaplin also had to contend with the transition of the American film industry to the talkies and the downward spiral of the depression following the Stock Market Crash in October 1929. He chose a novice actress, Virginia Cherrill, as the female lead for the film, and during production he fired the man originally cast as the millionaire and fired, then re-hired, Cherrill. Yet he pressed forward, releasing the film to much acclaim and box-office success in the first two months of 1931. Aesthetically, technologically, and culturally, City Lights is a key transitional film in Chaplin's body of work, as the director/writer/actor responded for the first time to sound films and stepped in the direction of the social commentary that would become more overt in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). Based on extensive archival research of Chaplin's production records, Charles Maland's City Lights offers a careful history of the film's production and reception, as well as a close examination of the film itself, with special attention to the sources of the final scene's emotional power.

About the Author:
Charles Maland is Professor of Cinema Studies, American Studies and English at the University of Tennessee.

See the publisher website: BFI Publishing

See City Lights on IMDB ...

> On a related topic:

Le Cinéma comique américain: Vol. 2 - Le silence est d'or

Le Cinéma comique américain (2014)

Vol. 2 - Le silence est d'or

by Enrico Giacovelli

Subject: Genre > Comedy/Humor

Le Cinéma comique américain: Vol. 1 - les années flamboyantes du court-métrage: Tartes à la crème et coups de pieds aux fesses

Le Cinéma comique américain (2012)

Vol. 1 - les années flamboyantes du court-métrage: Tartes à la crème et coups de pieds aux fesses

by Enrico Giacovelli

Subject: Genre > Comedy/Humor

Le Cinéma, naissance d'un art: Premiers écrits 1895-1920

Le Cinéma, naissance d'un art (2008)

Premiers écrits 1895-1920

Dir. José Moure and Daniel Banda

Subject: Silent Cinema

Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin

Silent Traces (2006)

Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin

by John Bengston
(in English)

Subject: Director > Charlie Chaplin

Les Burlesques:ou parade des somnambules

Les Burlesques (2024)

ou parade des somnambules

by Petr Kràl

Subject: Genre > Comedy/Humor

Modernités de Charlie Chaplin:Un cinéaste dans l’œil des avant-gardes

Modernités de Charlie Chaplin (2022)

Un cinéaste dans l’œil des avant-gardes

Dir. José Moure and Claire Lebossé

Subject: Director > Charlie Chaplin

Les Archives Charlie Chaplin

Les Archives Charlie Chaplin (2021)

by Paul Duncan
(in English and French)

Subject: Director > Charlie Chaplin

Histoire générale du cinéma 3:Le cinéma devient un art (L'avant-guerre) 1909-1920

Histoire générale du cinéma 3 (1973)

Le cinéma devient un art (L'avant-guerre) 1909-1920

by Georges Sadoul

Subject: History of Cinema

Note: A book on a slightly gray background is a book that is no longer currently published or that may be difficult to find in bookstores. The shown price is that of the book at its release, the price on the second-hand market may be very different.
A book on a beige background is a book published in a language other than French.

23714 books listed   •   (c)2014-2024 livres-cinema.info   •