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LIMELIGHT
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
When Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced LIMELIGHT in 1952, his career was fading.
His last film, MONSIEUR VERDOUX, which he had made five years earlier, was a box office
failure. He was boycotted by morality groups because of his affairs with women, and, having been
accused of being a Communist, his films were picketed by so-called “patriotic” groups. At this
point in his career, it is obvious that this, his last American film, was a severely personal one.
When an older man by the name of Calvero (Charlie Chaplin) walks into his apartment building
one day, he smells gas coming from one of the rooms. He breaks through the locked door and
rescues a young woman named Thereza (Claire Bloom), who had tried to kill herself by ingesting
poison and leaving the gas on in her apartment. A doctor tells Calvero that if the woman is sent to
a hospital, she will be put in jail for attempted suicide, so Calvero decides to care for her himself.
As they begin a relationship, we discover that Calvero was once a famous clown who is now a
has-been, and the young woman is a former ballet dancer.
I myself am not a fan of Chaplin’s films. Maybe it is just me, but I can only watch someone fall
down and get hit in the head so many times before I start to get both annoyed and bored. I was
very glad that this was a more somber drama. There are moments of humor, such as some witty
dialogue and the clown performances by Calvero, which are reminiscent of his earlier work, but,
since they are mostly short snippets scattered throughout the film, they do not get old. The most
memorable of which is an onstage performance between Chaplin and his former comedic rival,
Buster Keaton.
When I look at the aging clown, I cannot help but see a lot of Chaplin in him. This is not just
because Charlie plays the character, but because we can see Charlie’s sadness due to his fading
career in Calvero. There is a scene near the middle of the film where Calvero finally gets another
act on-stage, and the entire audience walks out during the middle of his performance. Seeing the
sadness on his face as he walks off of the stage, I could not help but feel a deep sympathy for both
the character and the actor. Chaplin also references his affairs with young women, and how the
attention they got was ridiculous, by having Thereza stay in Calvero’s apartment, which arouses
suspicion among the local people. It gives Chaplin a chance to mock his accusers in the form of
the landlady.
The only problem that the film has is its over-abundance of life-affirming speeches. I can respect
that this film was a kind of cinematic therapy for Charlie, and that he probably needed his life to
be affirmed at this point, but after one of two of them, they grew tiresome. But even though it has
these speeches, I was glad that the film ended on an appropriately somber note instead of going
for cheap feel-good sentimentalism.
After watching it last night, I did not think quite as highly of it as I do now, but on reflection it is
a very touching drama that manages to create genuinely sympathetic characters, and works on a
very personal level for its auteur. This is easily Chaplin’s best, most mature work that I have seen
thus far.
My rating: ***1/2
Review by Jared Mills
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