297 - Limelight, United States, 1952. Dir. Charles Chaplin.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

297 - Limelight, United States, 1952.  Dir. Charles Chaplin.

Calvero is a washed-up clown.

He was great in his day, one of the best that ever was, but now his name is poison to producers.  His agent has just spent six months convincing them to put him on a bill at a local music hall.

They are doing HIM a favor.  Now if he could just change his name maybe people will show up.

How did it come to this?

At one time Charlie Chaplin himself was the most famous entertainer in the world.  Not one of the most famous.  The most famous.

Whom do you think might be the most world-famous character today?  Mickey Mouse?  Ronald McDonald?  Now imagine Chaplin's Little Tramp character being more universally known than that.  He was.

And yet his last film, yesterday's Monsieur Verdoux (1947), was a flop.  His first ever.  People stayed away in droves.

So he knew a little bit about what he was talking about.

When we first see Calvero, he is drunk.  And even the neighborhood kids pick on him.  The neighborhood kids played by Chaplin's own children.

But something wonderful happens to him.  The kind of thing that can transform a person's life.

He stumbles into a situation where someone needs him, and he reaches out beyond himself to help another human being.  He stops thinking about his own problems, and he starts thinking about someone else.

And love awakens within him.

Not romance.  Not giddy feelings.  Not the desire to be loved.

But love.

Self-sacrifice.  Giving.  Patience.  Kindness.  Longsuffering.  Keeping no record of wrongs.  Commitment.  Dedication.  Steadfastness.

That kind of love.

A girl in his apartment building tries to kill herself.  She swallows something.  She opens the oven and closes the windows and blocks the gaps under the doors.

When he finds her she is passed out.  He revives her.  He gets someone to call the doctor.  He helps her to his room.  He helps her to heal.

And when he discovers that she is a dancer, this great performer takes her under his wings and nurtures her back to life, back to health, back to confidence, and back to performing again.

He himself still performs.

On stage.

To an empty audience.

And at first he takes her with him.

And they perform together.

On stage.

To an empty audience.

But one day, as it is bound to happen, the people come.

There will be struggles.

There will be heartaches.

But in the end there just might be triumph.

And he loves her so much that he is even willing to let her go.

To a younger man who is more suited to her.

Even when she loves him and him alone.

How will that turn out?

Something extraordinary happens in this film.

When Calvero returns to the stage, he comes with his Partner.

And his Partner, Charlie Chaplin's partner, is none other than Joseph Frank Keaton.

That's Buster Keaton to you.

The Great Stone Face.

The man who, together with Chaplin, invented the movies.

And possibly the only real rival Chaplin had ever known.

The two legends.  In their twilight.  Returning to the limelight.  Together.

We get to see them backstage before the show.

Putting on their make-up and hair.

Transforming before our very eyes.

And then coming out on stage and looking unlike anything we have ever seen in them before.

When you think of great films about performers--The Red Shoes (1947), Black Swan (2010), etc. (You finish the list)--think of Limelight (1952).  It belongs.

Claire Bloom, who plays Terry the dancer, the girl Calvero loves, was just getting started in real life.  And Chaplin launched her career.  And at the young age of 86 she is still acting today.

You may know her from The King's Speech (2010).  Or Mighty Aphrodite (1995).  Or The Age of Innocence (1993).  Or Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).  Or Clash of the Titans (1981).  Or Islands in the Stream (1977).  Or A Doll's House (1973).  Or The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965).  Or Look Back in Anger (1959).  Or Richard III (1955).  And so much in between.

As Terry looks into the eyes of Neville, the younger man, the man to whom Calvero yields (played by Chaplin's own son Sydney Earl Chaplin!), she explains why she will always love Calvero.

"It's his soul.  His sweetness.  His sadness.

Nothing could ever separate me from that."