Article: Chaplin's "Lights" still shines.(REEL WORLD)

THIS YEAR IS THE 75TH anniversary of Charlie Chaplin's celebrated "City Lights" (1931), the film with possibly cinema's most memorable concluding scene. Film critic James Agee would accord the segment just that honor in his 1949 Life essay, "Comedy's Greatest Era." Agee's description of the poignant conclusion, where the once-blind flower girl finally sees Chaplin's romantically frustrated Tramp figure and finds him wanting, also has a poetry of its own: "He recognizes himself, for the first time, through the terrible changes in her lace. The camera just exchanges a few close-ups of the emotions which shift and intensify in each face. It is enough to shrivel the heart to ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!