Limelight

It's a film about a famous comedian who is past his prime and who has lost touch with his audience, made by a director who is a famous comedian past his prime and who has lost touch with his audience. The film's protagonist, played by the screenwriter-director, feels isolated and is self-pitying and prone to moralizing. The film itself feels isolated and detached from reality. It's also confessional and frequently embarrassing. Calvero's death is so steeped in self-pathos that it's grotesque.

TSPDT #504. basically, chaplin creates his own mythology. once young and famous, he gradually fades into the limelight, as audiences move on and up while he falls in stasis. but in his old age, he grows warm with wisdom, and with this knowledge and kindness is able to touch hearts and rekindle minds, passing on his past glory to that one inevitable woman enraptured by his spirit. bittersweet drama and elegant comedy indeed, but ultimately old charles reveals himself to be an insufferable wanker.

An epic gesture of self-pity. Aged Chaplin, with no audience left, makes up a gorgeous young heroine who worships him and tells him he's a genius -in turn, he saves her life by offering his trite life philosophy, while the film grows progressively bloated in length and in melodrama. Hardly a gifted verbal comedian and with the glimpses of his old physical skit being tacked-on, Chaplin alternates, in dead seriousness, between self-loathing and self-glorification -but it's always about himself.

No doubt sentiment overwhelmed Chaplin with age, and many of the criticisms against Limelight contain more than a grain of truth. It IS sappy and mawkish and self pitying, but it's also a very bold and personal work for Chaplin where he laid his emotional cards (i.e.wounds) on the table for the world to see. Some moments of overwrought dialogue don't spoil the effect, and there is something touching in watching this despondent character find meaning and joy in a cold and unforgiving world.

For over 2 hours, Chaplin is basically pissing and moaning because his one narrow brand of comedy isn't aging well, and when he's not doing that he's failing miserably at attempting profound realizations. Oh and it's really boring too.

A brilliant late-career piece from Chaplin which effectively honors the old while celebrating the new. That he does this with a significant contribution from his work during the silent period (including a joyous cameo from Buster Keaton) makes the film all the more personal and heartfelt. Teresa's ballerina is a fully realized character alongside the aging comedian, and offers a lively counterpoint to his wise and broken character.

I may be no fan of Chaplin's brand of physical comedy, but I find it infinitely preferable to the unbearable narcissism of Limelight. What a load of pretentious piffle. I watched most of it at double, or quadruple, speed. Even the Keaton-Chaplin collaboration disappoints. Poor Buster is given little to do except fiddle endlessly with his sheet music and trod on a violin. What a waste.

A little too maudlin and a little too long. There is a sweetness to this film, even it involves a romance featuring a 40-year age gap.

Might this be Claire Bloom inventing the MPDG archetype? Definitely a self-indulgent piece of melodramatic self-pity, but seen in the context of Chaplin’s unequalled fixture as an icon of his time, it’s a worthy and justifiable tribute, with Chaplin himself turning in a masterfully emotional performance for the ages, matched by Bloom who invests her admittedly contrived character with a genuine and believable pathos. Nice support work from Bruce, and the Keaton/Chaplin match-up is a highlight.

Bah. Annoyingly conceited and very, very long.

The Meaning Of Life And Art, as expounded on at length by Charles Chaplin, Esq. And I do mean at length. While it's in bad need of trimming, though, and the whole thing comes across a bit as Chaplin's love letter to himself and his noble self-sacrifice to an ungrateful audience, there is a quite moving film in here, one that takes its comedy as seriously as befits its subject. He keeps playing as they carry him off.

An older Chaplin still keeps looking after these helpless young women who miraculously endure his unchecked mugging.

It is difficult not to see in the face of Calvero the face of the Chaplin himself. I liked the movie in this aspect, since I could notice sincerity. Meantime, in spite of the quite appreciable joint being, some parts of the movie are too sweet for my taste, but even so, a great movie...

The depiction of the temporal nature of Chaplin's preferred medium and life. His inability to competently stretch out to other mediums whilst being this self-referential is his paradox; it reinforces his Holism and the sad loss of the silent-era. We are left with a broken shell, and the film reflects this, but the subtext remains profound. The film's vast, superficial imperfection makes it greater than itself; it is a sacrifice, as was his life. This significance will resonate and endure.

The simplicity in this movie is amazing! Felt in love with every single scene!

This is a really quite poignant and thoughtful film about a man who comes across a lady who has attempted suicide. Its got a real feeling of old fashioned charm about it. Some of the stage acts I particularly enjoyed, such as the supposedly performing fleas! its slapstick and a bit daft, which may not be everyone's cup of tea perhaps but it does have some quite thoughtful elements too and the ballet dancing scenes were lovely.

Charlie Chaplin's real swansong. A moody and deliberately depressing comedy of a aging icon with his best days far behind him. Smears on a little too much melancholy, but it mirrors the real life Chaplin so well. And that we get that legendary collaboration with Buster Keaton at the end, is simply a unforgettable bonus in all of this.

Wow! Very impressive! Somehow, this film eluded me all these years. A beautiful film by and starring Chales Chaplin. It's about life, love and hope. All the while, quite entertaining and well-acted.

The story starts to build and grow on you at a slow pace, so people willing to be patient might be rewarded, but the runtime was too much for my taste. The dialogues are brilliant, the story always plays catch-up, and the acting is not up to the mark on several occasions. Not the finest for the respected man. Also, I did not like the flights of fantasy when he is asleep and his acts on stage. Also, fk the FBI and J Edgar Hoover for targeting Chaplin.

“that hasn't happened since i was a beginner. the cycle is complete.”

I can't help but feeling that this is Chaplin's own semi-epilogue to his career. It's not his last film, but it was his last great one. Seeing Chaplin channel the classic Tramp character is fun. Also, several fun trivia facts: it's the only movie with both Chaplin and Buster Keaton in it, Robert Aldrich was the assistant director on it, and due to weird Academy Award rules, it won an Oscar in 1973 despite being released in 1952. The dialogue is a bit much at times, but it's a great film.

89.00

Star Rating: ★★★★1/2

watched: 2016, 2019

I saw humor in this, despite how despairing it got. But hey, it's Chaplin still doing his thing past his prime but nonetheless delivering something poignant. Also Buster Keaton's in this.

i liked the parts where they didnt talk too much

rather boring.

It can feel self-indulgent at times and over-long. I loved it when I first saw it many years ago, but the more I think back on it the less I feel like I actually like it or desire to rewatch it.

87.500

A version of A Star is Born with an aged Charles Chaplain.

A touching, bittersweet masterpiece and one of Chaplin's finest films. Chaplin himself delivers an astounding performance, far from the formula of the Tramp.

#469

A sentimental and rather tedious dramedy, has the feeling of an autobiography. With wonderful moments somewhere in between its overlong run.

The narrative about a legendary but faded comedian gets most of its power from the casting of Chaplin as, basically, himself, but the greater theme of struggling to deal with aging is more universal. Frustratingly, the camerawork, editing, pacing, and occasionally excessive melodrama prevent this film from quite living up to its potential, but it's still a tremendously intriguing work.

I don't generally dig Chaplin at all. I have turned off or walked out of many of his films. Astonishingly, I actually like this one. True to form for Chaplin, it's a bit simplistic -- even naive -- but what it has to say about life rings true, the dramatic story (which I believe is Chaplin's most serious) actually works (even if it is a bit hoary)... and I even found myself laughing at many of the jokes. Plus if you've ever had a suicidal, much younger ladyfriend, you can totally relate

439

A powerful and affecting allegory, although perhaps only for Chaplin disciples. If one's knowledge of Chaplin's work and life is limited to the mainstream Tramp caricature, then I could see one puzzling over this one. Limelight also benefits from perhaps Chaplin's most fully-realized score.

in his age chaplin's sappy and cuddly side take the reigns. it tugs at the heartstrings from the moment you see calvero dreaming about the stage. chaplin was a movie making titan, he was fully capable of handeling all duties of film making by himself. it's a phenominal movie, but i think chaplin made this one for himself, in an attempt to come to terms with his own falling stardom. that scene with buster keaton brought tears to my eyes.

Absolutely brilliant and Chaplin's best work. It may be a little self indulgent but that doesn't matter at all when it carries such profound meaning and is pulled off so well. It's at times heartbreaking and at other times hilarious and every bit of sentiment and comedy is completely earned.

Chaplin não consegue ser piegas nem quando tenta com todas as forças! O motivo? Ele é verdadeiro em cada movimento corporal. E a cada palavra que pronuncia é possível sentir o amor que ele tinha pela humanidade e pela sétima arte.

370

There's so much good stuff here but it is somewhat suffocated by EVERY filmmaking and acting choice shouting "LOOK HOW SAD AND POIGNANT THIS IS!". Douglas Sirk never worked half this hard to force tears out of people.

This is a movie that provides everything: humor in a well balanced way. Maybe his most personal movie.

Chaplin's best score since "The Kid", great bio pic and a sad farewell to a legendary actor, artist, and the "most famous ballet dancer in the world".

# 403

The closest thing to a Chaplin autobiography on film, you can't help but marvel at how beautiful this man was and how nimble his fingers were at playing an audience's heartstrings, even towards the end of his career. A great film if you let it.

Chaplin always did have a very sentimental side, and here it's just too much.