Review of Limelight (1952) by Buket A — 09 Mar 2009

One of the saddest films I have ever seen.

Its very indulgent, Charlie Chapman stars as Calvero the Clown, a faded vaudeville comic, who comes home drunk one night and notices theres a smell of gas in the halls, he discovers a women passed out in her apartment. He takes the women up to his room and calls a doctor, who tells him it was probably a suicide attempt and that the women needs to remain in bed for the next few days. The landlord, thinks the women skipped out, and behind on her rent decides to lease the apartment to someone else. Calvero is stuck with the suicidal young women, who confesses she was a ballerina, but now beleives she cant move her legs. The doctor says its a psychosymatic paralisis, so Calvero begins rehabilitating her littile by little devilering rousing, moving, and unsentimental speeches about why lifes worth living, and then continuing to drink himself to death, in private.

The ballerina does walk, in fact shes a success, while Calvero tires to stage a comeback of his own, but fails at every attempt. She is made prima-ballerina and he gets a minor role as a clown, in the same Opera, but things dont go according to plan. The ballerina falls in love with Calvero, and he clearly has affections for her, but thinks himself too old, for her. She insists she loves the sad, kind beauty, of his soul, and he's unable to comprehend anything in him worthy besides his clowning and the laughter of the audience.

Many of Chaplins performances are painful to watch, a vaudeville perfomance without laughter is a humuliating thing to behold. The ballet scenes, are wonderfull, fluid, and given a good deal of time to contrast with his baffonery.

The story is primarily emotional, and largely absent of the slapstick Chaplin is famous for, but it succeded in suckering me into its sentiments completely. The ballerina's last dance, and the final scene in the Opera about a women who dies tragically, but whose soul is seen dancing everywhere left me kinda dumbstruck by how effective it was. I was really just expecting Chaplin to fall down alot, and he does but he just doesnt get back up.

"That's all any of us are: amateurs. We don't live long enough to be anything else."-Calvero.