Chaplin's last American film is a masterful meditation on the highs and lows of fame.
 

A story of a ballerina and a clown set in London in the summer of 1914, Limelight begins with washed-up pantomime performer Calvero (Chaplin) saving young Thereza (Bloom) from committing suicide. By the time the credits roll, Chaplin's taken us on a self-flagellating trawl through the highs and lows of success, failure, old age and celebrity.

Melancholic to the point of being embarrassingly self-pitying, Limelight is a profoundly moving film, an aging artist's philosophical mediation on life that's full of grandstanding declarations of intent: "What is there to fight for? Everything! Life itself. Isn't that enough. To have lived, suffered and enjoyed!" As drunken has-been Calvero claws his way back to the stage for one final moment of glory, with the help of the devoted Thereza, Limelight takes us deep into Chaplin's own fears and dreams, from the vaudeville world of his childhood to his awareness of the transitory nature of public adoration. How ironic, then, that it should be the last film he'd make in America, before the anti-communist lobby forced him into permanent exile.

Tackling the sad business of being funny with an unflinching - yet often overly sentimental - gaze, Chaplin delivers a true auteur's film, a work of great personal resonance that stands as the summation of his tragicomic view of life. In many ways, it's the inverse of Chaplin's acclaimed comedies, yet it's also a fitting conclusion to their vision of a world in which the good (like the perpetually downtrodden Tramp) are oppressed by great forces that are out of their control. Here it's celebrity and fortune that are the crushing oppressors, making Limelight a work of immense sorrow.

Verdict: Moving, sentimental and deeply sad, this is the greatest moment in Chaplin's late career, a powerful work of cinema that remains essential viewing for Chaplin fans and non-believers alike.

Excerpt of review from Channel 4 located HERE

Charlie Chaplin’s masterful drama about the twilight of a former vaudeville star is among the writer-director’s most touching films. Chaplin plays Calvero, a once beloved musical-comedy performer, now a washed-up alcoholic who lives in a small London flat. A glimmer of hope arrives when he meets a beautiful but melancholy ballerina (Claire Bloom) who lives downstairs. An elegant mix of the comic and the tragic, this poignant movie also features Buster Keaton in an extended cameo, marking the only time the two silent comedy icons appeared in a film together. Made at a time when Chaplin was under attack by the American press and far right, Limelight was scarcely distributed in the United States upon its initial release, but it is now considered one of his essential and most personal works.

1) Image - Region 0 - NTSC LEFT

2) Warner - Region 1 - NTSC MIDDLE

Total Bitrate: 25.50 Mbps

Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 Video

Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 Video

Edition Details:
• Chaplin’s “Limelight”: Its Evolution and Intimacy, a new video essay by Charlie Chaplin biographer David Robinson (21:10)
• New interviews with actors Claire Bloom (15:53) and Norman Lloyd (14:53)
• Chaplin Today: “Limelight,” a 2002 documentary on the film (26:42)
• Archival audio recording of Chaplin reading two short excerpts from his novella Footlights (2:16)
• Two short films by Chaplin: A Night in the Show (1915 - 25:06) and the uncompleted The Professor (1919 - 6:27)
• Outtake (4:31) and two trailers (4:27)
• PLUS: An essay by critic Peter von Bagh and excerpts from an on-set piece by journalist Henry Gris
 

Blu-ray Release Date: May 19th, 2015
Transparent Blu-ray case

Chapters 23