City Lights

In 1931, talkies had gone from the newest fad to mainstream.  Silent films were quickly becoming too old fashioned.  Nonetheless, Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in the silent City Lights.  Surprisingly, it was one of Chaplin’s most successful films, financially and critically.  Some hail it as his greatest work and even one of the best silent films.  It was also Chaplin’s final silent film.  What a shame that the Academy did not see it fit for any Oscar nominations.

The film works like a perfect and sweet romantic comedy.  Chaplin portrays his famous Tramp, a poor, wandering, clumsy guy with a big heart.  We watch him make two friends in the city.  One is an eccentric millionaire (Harry Myers), that the Tramp saves from a drunken suicide attempt.  After that, he takes the Tramp on the town, living it up, even letting him drive his car.  The only problem is that once the millionaire is sober, he has no recollection of the Tramp and throws him back into the street.  It’s a very on and off again relationship.  The second friend is a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) who sells flowers.  Through a series of coincidences, misinterpretations, and a ride in the millionaire’s car, she believes her new friend to be very wealthy.  When the little Tramp realizes this girl is in a financial crisis, and that her blindness can be cured, he works hard to raise the money to help her.  After all, he has to keep up the idea that he’s rich if he wants any shot at romance, right?

I dare anyone to watch a Charlie Chaplin film and not laugh.  Some of the gags in City Lights had me in stitches.  The Tramp’s opening scene is a great one.  Hundreds have turned out for a ceremony for a new statue.  As the sheet is lifted, revealing the new monument, the Tramp is curled up sleeping in the lap of the seated figure.  How wonderfully cute, innocent and hilarious!  And in his attempt to get off the statue, he gets his pants caught on the sword of another figure.  The moment gets more awkward when the national anthem plays, and out of respect, he covers his heart and stands still, his pants still hung up on the sword.  The slapstick style comedy is only slightly physical, good hearted and perfect.  The scene just before the boxing match is another that had me rolling.

Though this is a silent film, Chaplin incorporates a few talkie techniques.  When city officials are commemorating the new statue, they talk!  Only they sound like the off-camera adults in Charlie Brown cartoons.  What you hear there is actually the voice of Charlie Chaplin, the first ever released on film.  Later, in a scene I found particularly comical, the Tramp accidentally swallows a whistle.  What’s worse, he gets the hiccups and disturbs a singing performance at a swanky party.  Before talkies, there would probably only be a certain noise or note from the orchestra to indicate the whistle, but instead the noise of a whistle being blown is used.  Perhaps this scene was an inspiration for the nightmare scene in The Artist.  I do see quite a few similarities, even the use of dogs.

While I still have my share of Chaplin movies and silent films to see, I believe that City Lights is one of Chaplin’s most enjoyable achievements.  What he embodies as the Tramp is a simple goodness that we all should aspire to, and that is evident in the sweetest way in this film.  Whether you love silent film or think it’s too old fashioned, everyone should see City Lights.

“Tomorrow the birds will sing.”

Ray

The first image I remember of Ray Charles is probably that scene in The Blues Brothers where he plays Shake a Tail Feather.  As a kid, I don’t think my first thought was concerning Ray’s blindness, bur rather how he played with such enthusiasm and could really move to the music just sitting behind a keyboard.  I don’t remember, but my dad might have had to tell me he was blind before I realized it.  Maybe kids just don’t notice those sort of things when someone doesn’t seem handicapped.

This movie biopic about Ray Charles takes place way before the days of The Blues Brothers.  We first meet him as a young man on his way to Seattle to play in a little jazz joint called The Rocking Chair.  He has a nice start there as part of a trio, but quickly realizes that he’s treated like a dog on a leash.  Everyone feels like because of his blindness he needs to be looked after, taken care of, babysat.  He leaves to play somewhere else, but this keeps happening until he establishes himself.  Unfortunately, along the way he starts using heroin and cheats on his wife while he’s on the road.

Sex and drugs aren’t his first problem though.  As the film progresses, we get looks back at Ray’s early childhood in the rural south.  We see his first encounter with a piano and some memories that haunt him throughout his life and only intensify with his heroin addiction.  These flashbacks also show us how Ray slowly lost his sight at just seven years old.

Jamie Foxx hands down deserved the Oscar he won for portraying Ray Charles.  Everything is there, the walk that rocks back and forth, the kinda fidgety way he moves and the slight stutter.  And it’s not done in a caricature way you see all the time, but fleshes out to feel authentic.  Foxx was even blind during filming due to the eye prosthetics he had to wear and really had to figure out how to move around the sets on his own while being Ray.

And let’s not forget the music.  Jamie Fox really did play piano for all the scenes, but you could swear it’s Charles.  He looks that passionate and natural.

Now, I think people are likely to compare this film to Walk the Line from 2005, the biopic about Johnny Cash’s career and overcoming his drug addiction.  They’re both good movies with similar subjects but vastly different.  First of all, country and jazz and rock and roll are two different worlds.  Another, Walk the Line mostly becomes a love story and Reese Witherspoon schools Joaquin Phoenix in acting, whereas Ray is strictly about Ray and Jamie Fox carries this film all on his own with out even seeing.  And their childhood traumas, Ray’s has Johnny’s guilt issues plus blindness.  Like I said, I enjoy both films, but Ray has more merit.

Obviously any fans of Ray Charles or Jamie Foxx have to put this on their must-see list.  If you’re interested in rock and roll history or the Civil Rights movement, this should also be up your alley.  Everyone else, just see it cause it’s a good movie, I guarantee you’ll be tapping your toes along with the music.

“Always remember your promise to me. Never let nobody or nothing turn you into no cripple.”