City Lights (Chaplin, 1931) — I See You At Last
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The Blind Girl can see The Tramp for the first time.
- from City Lights (1931)
- Creator: Charles Chaplin
- Distributor: United Artists
- Posted by Danny Baldwin
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When the Blind Girl in "City Lights" can finally see the rather sad state of The Tramp, the moment is a feat of shot-reverse shot acting. With only three inter-titles, which could easily be omitted with none of the impact lost ("You?" "You can see now?" "Yes, I can see now."), the sequence finds its poignancy in the actors' glances at each other. Chaplin personally attributed the sequence's enduring success to the atypically restrained acting for silent comedy: "It's a beautiful scene, beautiful, and because it isn't over-acted," adding that he was barely acting at all.
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