Pencil This In: CSO At The Movies Presents 'City Lights'

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 19, 2014 5:55PM

Many film experts consider City Lights to be Charlie Chaplin's magnum opus. (I'm not a film expert by any means but my votes would be for The Great Dictator and Limelight.) But City Lights is arguably the most completely realized of Chaplin's silent films. Released in 1931 just as sound was becoming more incorporated into film Chaplin's tale of his Tramp character scrambling to raise the money to fund an operation that would restore the eyesight of a flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) with whom he develops a crush. It's among the most heartbreaking films of Chaplin's ouevre and contains some of his most iconic extended comedy sequences.

The score for the film, written by Chaplin, also stands the test of time and in the hands of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, carries and added melancholy to the emotions being conveyed on the screen. See the film with orchestral accompaniment by the CSO as part of the orchestra's "CSO at the Movies" series 8 p.m. March 21. Tickets are available online.

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