Sunday June 5, 6:30pm - Neptune Theater Saturday June 11, 11:00am - Egyptian Theater
"Swing little girl. Swing high in the sky, and don't ever look at the ground. If you're looking for rainbows look up to the sky. You'll never find rainbows if you're looking down."
The point at which the world of cinema caught up to and passed Charles Chaplin is The Circus, his final film of the silent era. A disastrous production schedule and Chaplin's personal turmoil at the time has much to do with the diminished stature of this film. Likely an episode in his life he chose to forget and excluded from his autobiography, the film was forgotten until it's re-release in 1969 with an original soundtrack composed and title song performed by the then eighty year old Chaplin. The Circus, despite all this, is no less a work of genius than his other films of the era and includes many of Chaplin's best and most memorable comic moments. In a spectacular opening shot we see Merna, a circus rider, burst through a paper ring to reveal all the vitality of the big top, a Degas dancer amid the sawdust and lights. While lacking the chemistry Chaplin had with Edna Purvaince, Merna Kennedy brings a sweetness and charm to her character. Her joy is short-lived when she is brutalized by the ringmaster for her lack of perfection. Enter the little tramp, broke and starving, yet always managing to get by, this time, secretly fed by a babe in arms. A victim of misunderstanding and happenstance, he finds himself pursued by police, across the boardwalk and into the fun house maze of mirrors in a complex and magical scene. After Charlie is forced to masquerade as an automaton to avoid capture the chase ends up under the big top, where he wrecks the show but wins the audience over with his misadventures. The mayhem subsides, the performance resumes and we are left with the dissatisfaction of the crowd, "Where's the funny man? Bring on the funny man!" Oblivious, he lies fast asleep in a nearby horse cart. Chaplin's brilliance was never so clear as when he portrayed every day life in all it's mundane little details. The starving little dancer steals his breakfast. he rebukes her, pities her, and in the end gives her his meal. Later, as she hurries off, the tramp is smitten, and the die is cast. Our little fellow manages to stumble his way to success, hired, fired and finally re-hired as a circus prop man. He is in fact, and unknowing, the star of the show. As though to illustrate why his love for the girl can never be realized, the tramp tosses food to Merna from her lofty perch in the empty tent, they are from different worlds. In the end, he guides the girl to the safety of a better life and the promise of prosperity as the little tramp wanders off into the setting sun. In a picture filled with an excess of wonderful vignettes, chased by a mad donkey while holding an enormous stack of dishes, Charlie's surprise when he opens a trunk to find it full of wild monkeys, his boastfulness at surviving a moment trapped in the lions cage only to be frightened by a kitten, and William Tell with a banana, Chaplin left still more on the cutting room floor. In the highlight of the film we see Charlie's hilarious trip across the highwire as he stands in for the absent star and is attacked by the marauding monkeys for his efforts. While The Circus may be thinner in character development and plot than Chaplin's other feature films, it remains a thoroughly enjoyable comic masterpiece. Easily forgotten by modern moviegoers, no one has ever achieved the ability to express tenderness, joy, sadness, irrepressible humor and pathos to a greater degree than Chaplin. The broad appeal of his films made him the beloved everyman to a world-wide audience. The Circus is yet another gem from the greatest comic filmmaker of the silent era and a subtle hint of the masterpiece to follow. The opportunity to see this film on a big screen in a theater from the silent era is rare and should not be missed.
"Swing little girl. Swing high in the sky, and don't ever look at the ground. If you're looking for rainbows look up to the sky. You'll never find rainbows if you're looking down."
The point at which the world of cinema caught up to and passed Charles Chaplin is The Circus, his final film of the silent era. A disastrous production schedule and Chaplin's personal turmoil at the time has much to do with the diminished stature of this film. Likely an episode in his life he chose to forget and excluded from his autobiography, the film was forgotten until it's re-release in 1969 with an original soundtrack composed and title song performed by the then eighty year old Chaplin. The Circus, despite all this, is no less a work of genius than his other films of the era and includes many of Chaplin's best and most memorable comic moments. In a spectacular opening shot we see Merna, a circus rider, burst through a paper ring to reveal all the vitality of the big top, a Degas dancer amid the sawdust and lights. While lacking the chemistry Chaplin had with Edna Purvaince, Merna Kennedy brings a sweetness and charm to her character. Her joy is short-lived when she is brutalized by the ringmaster for her lack of perfection. Enter the little tramp, broke and starving, yet always managing to get by, this time, secretly fed by a babe in arms. A victim of misunderstanding and happenstance, he finds himself pursued by police, across the boardwalk and into the fun house maze of mirrors in a complex and magical scene. After Charlie is forced to masquerade as an automaton to avoid capture the chase ends up under the big top, where he wrecks the show but wins the audience over with his misadventures. The mayhem subsides, the performance resumes and we are left with the dissatisfaction of the crowd, "Where's the funny man? Bring on the funny man!" Oblivious, he lies fast asleep in a nearby horse cart. Chaplin's brilliance was never so clear as when he portrayed every day life in all it's mundane little details. The starving little dancer steals his breakfast. he rebukes her, pities her, and in the end gives her his meal. Later, as she hurries off, the tramp is smitten, and the die is cast. Our little fellow manages to stumble his way to success, hired, fired and finally re-hired as a circus prop man. He is in fact, and unknowing, the star of the show. As though to illustrate why his love for the girl can never be realized, the tramp tosses food to Merna from her lofty perch in the empty tent, they are from different worlds. In the end, he guides the girl to the safety of a better life and the promise of prosperity as the little tramp wanders off into the setting sun. In a picture filled with an excess of wonderful vignettes, chased by a mad donkey while holding an enormous stack of dishes, Charlie's surprise when he opens a trunk to find it full of wild monkeys, his boastfulness at surviving a moment trapped in the lions cage only to be frightened by a kitten, and William Tell with a banana, Chaplin left still more on the cutting room floor. In the highlight of the film we see Charlie's hilarious trip across the highwire as he stands in for the absent star and is attacked by the marauding monkeys for his efforts. While The Circus may be thinner in character development and plot than Chaplin's other feature films, it remains a thoroughly enjoyable comic masterpiece. Easily forgotten by modern moviegoers, no one has ever achieved the ability to express tenderness, joy, sadness, irrepressible humor and pathos to a greater degree than Chaplin. The broad appeal of his films made him the beloved everyman to a world-wide audience. The Circus is yet another gem from the greatest comic filmmaker of the silent era and a subtle hint of the masterpiece to follow. The opportunity to see this film on a big screen in a theater from the silent era is rare and should not be missed.