Charlie Chaplin City Lights Film Techniques

Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights

Who is the audience that the film is created for? Is the audience small or large?
City Lights , a seemingly simple yet expertly crafted silent film written by Charlie Chaplin and released in 1931 is a comedic but bittersweet love story interwoven with portrayals of social class and humanity. I do believe that this movie was meant to be far reaching and intended for a large and worldly audience, given that the strength of this film is its relatability. There are many aspects of the film that are generally identifiable to diverse types of people, which is a tactful and effective way to create a receptive audience. Some of these aspects that draw the audience in and create relatability are not only personality traits of the characters, but also scenarios in which the audience might have themselves experienced or at least witnessed throughout their lives. In this film the relatable aspects of the characters and scenarios are multifaceted and not exclusive to each character, which is a tactful way to create diverse relatability within a broad audience. For example, an audience member might relate to the duty driven toil of daily work through the eyes of the

These issues effect everyone in the audience, whether they are aware of them or not, and I think that Mr. Chaplin wanted this film to reach as many people as possible in the hopes of spreading awareness of these issues. The new world order at the time was to conform to the way society was changing, and that a positive outcome was thought to come out of following the momentum of the masses. But in doing so, society was leaving behind certain parts of it’s humanity, sacrificing goodwill for personal gain, equality for wealth, and love for social