City Lights Charles Chaplin

(aka "City Lights: A Comedy Romance in Pantomime")

USA 1931

It’s recognized as one of the greatest works of cinema ever created. Charles Chaplin’s City Lights is the divining rod for an unrivaled fusion of hilarious comedic elements and unforgettably tender pathos. It’s truly a film that can have you shedding tears of laughter as well as sadness. It’s so much more than a simple slapstick roughhouse stitched together with melodramatic sentimentality, like the films that many of his silent-era contemporaries would produce. The miracle of Chaplin’s City Lights was that its dynamic expressiveness is as great as its lack of sound. We take for granted the powerful effect that the timbre, tone, and inflection of an actor’s dialog can lend to a film. Remove it totally and it’s like trying to build a house with thumb-less hands.

Gary W. Tooze

Posters

Theatrical Release: January 30th, 1931 - Los Angeles, California

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DVD Comparison:

Image Entertainment (oop) - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Warner - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Nick Wrigley of Masters of Cinema for the Region 2 PAL captures!

(Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Warner - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Image Entertainment / CBS Fox Region 0 - NTSC	Warner Region 2 - PAL
	NTSC (North America) - Individually from Warner: or in Warner Boxset Vol. 2 with City Lights / The Circus / The Kid / A King in New York / A Woman of Paris / Monsieur Verdoux / The Chaplin Revue / Charlie - The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin:

Runtime	1:27:03	1:22:40 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.13 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 8.12 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.29:1 Pan and Scan Average Bitrate: ? PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Image
Bitrate: Warner	UNAVAILABLE at present
Audio	PCM English (Silent) (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) conducted by Carl Davis 1989, English (Silent) (Dolby Digital 1.0 Stereo) - Chaplin's Original Score	English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	None	English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, English for the hearing impaired, French for the hearing impaired, Italian for the hearing impaired and none - Extras is subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, German, Dutch and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Picture Boxed - 1.13:1 Edition Details: • All Regions • Black & White, Dolby • Chaplin's own score in two version: the original 1931 mono soundtrack, or a new digitally-recorded PCM stereo version • An interview with composer-conductor Carl Davis, who reconstructed the score in honor of the Chaplin Centennial in 1989 • Bonus Material: Original story notes, production data & publicity items DVD Release Date: February 8, 2000 Snap Case Chapters 20	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Studio Aspect Ratio: Full Screen (Standard) - 1.29:1 Edition Details: • Introduction by David Robinson (discusses details of production) • Chaplin Today: City Lights - 1916 cartoon footage of the little tramp. • Documents * behind-the-scenes material * a screen test for Georgia Hale * short film "The Dream Prince", Chaplin rehearsing the boxing scene, * Winston Churchill visiting the set • Additional Extra Features Also on disc two are trailers, six image galleries, a poster gallery, and a selection of clips from all the films in "The Chaplin Collection". • Trailers DVD Release Date: September 22nd, 2003 Custom Case Keep Case Chapters 20

Comments:

I have been waiting to compare this disc as it is one of my favorite films of all time.

The Region 2 Boxset was overwhelmingly chosen as the DVD of the Year in our Poll located HERE, but in this instance the Image Entertainment Region 0 Disc has a strong advantage. The Warner DVD is cropped and has PAL speedup. Contrast is better on the Warner but they appear equally as sharp. Well... what can we say. Extras go the way of the Warner, and I suspect the sound will as well, but the Image Entertainment disc does offer both the Carl Davis 1989 score and the original. The Warner does offer an inappropriate 5.1 version although this may be considered varying from the original presentation (although I'm sure it sounds great!).

The cropping is the unforgivable faux-pas by Warner. The Window-boxing (Pillar-boxing) was only around for a short period of time and it should be respected. It is a highly significant omission.

- Gary W. Tooze

Associated Reading (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


Metropolis (Bfi Film Classics, 54) by Thomas Elsaesser	Movie Posters of the Silent Film Era To Color by Rex Schneider, Christopher Buchman	American Film Cycles: The Silent Era (Bibliographies and Indexes in the Performing Arts) by Larry Langman	Family Secrets: The Feature Films of D. W. Griffith by Michael Allen	Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema by Jeffrey Vance	The First Female Stars : Women of the Silent Era by David W. Menefee	Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses by Anthony Slide	The Silent Cinema Reader by Lee Grieveson, Peter Kramer

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(Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Warner - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

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