Limelight
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Written by Charles Chaplin
1952/USA
Celebrated Productions
First viewing/Hulu Plus
[box] Calvero: There’s something about working the streets I like. It’s the tramp in me I suppose. [/box]
I want to like the talkie Charles Chaplin more than I do but I just can’t. This one gets some points for the physical comedy, his little songs, and Buster Keaton.
Calvero (Chaplin) was a famous clown but now is a washed up drunk. One night, he smells gas coming from a flat in his building and breaks the door down to rescue Thereza (Claire Bloom) from her attempted suicide. Thereza is a former ballerina who despairs of ever being able to dance again following her bout with rheumatic fever. Calvero makes her several inspirational speeches about the beauty of life and eventually convinces her she can walk. He gets a gig at a theater but can’t seem to make audiences laugh. He blames this on his going on without alcohol.
Thereza gets a job as a prima ballerina and gets Calvero hired as a clown in the ballet she is starring in. She announces that she loves him and asks him to marry her. However, he knows she is really in love with a young composer whom she befriended when she was working as a clerk in a music store. Calvero isn’t such a hit in the ballet and eventually takes to working as a street performer. Much pathos follows and the film concludes with his act at a benefit performance that is arranged for him. With Nigel Bruce as an impresario.
I can’t help it. When Chaplin talks he seems so unbearably pretentious and self-pitying to me that I can hardly stand it. Here he gives himself the opportunity to make several speeches and to portray himself as the object of desire for a young girl – yuck. When he is doing his delicate brand of silent physical comedy he is sublime, however, and there are several stage performances in the character of the clown which are quite good. We also get a glimpse of Buster Keaton at the end, still showing mastery of his craft.
Limelight won the Oscar for Best Music, Original Score. It was not in contention for an award until the 1973 Oscars since the film was not released in Los Angeles until 1972.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_cNIx5CrhA
Trailer
