Limelight
Depressed over her failed dance career, Terry (Claire Bloom) attempts suicide, only to be rescued by Calvero (Charles Chaplin), an impoverished, once-famous stage clown. Together they must look to each other to find meaning and hope in their lives.
May 16, 1883 in Hertfordshire, England, UK
21 December 1917, Moscow, Russia
9 November 1889, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
October 21, 1895 in Paris, France
15 January 1896, York, Australia
26 January 1891, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
August 19, 1899 in Birmingham, England, UK
November 28, 1901 in Alabama, USA
12 October 1898, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
27 April 1893, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
4 February 1895, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
9 September 1903, Hove, East Sussex, England, UK
April 11, 2017
With Limelight, for one last, brief moment, it's like old times even as the new age begins and Chaplin relinquishes his crown to the younger generations.
May 21, 2015
Some have also accused Limelight of being too sentimental, but we'd argue that's part of its charm.
March 26, 2009
Departing from most forms of Hollywood stereotype, the film has a flavor all its own in the sincere quality of the story anent the onetime great vaudemime and his rescue of a femme ballet student.
March 09, 2011
Elements of self parody from the master of slapstick leave you yearning for the early work that made his name. But it's worth a watch to see Chaplin and Keaton in one of few on-screen appearances together.
February 09, 2006
Few cinema artists have delved into their own lives and emotions with such ruthlessness and with such moving results.
August 08, 2011
Intended as a tragicomedy, if not a tearjerker, it is a two-thirds bore that comes to life in the last half-hour or so, when the old-master clown stops trying to be pathetic and reverts to his inimitable proper stuff.
January 01, 2000
Charles Chaplin's 1952 film is overlong, visually flat, episodically constructed, and a masterpiece.
March 25, 2006
Neither comedy nor tragedy altogether, it is a brilliant weaving of comic and tragic strands, eloquent, tearful and beguiling with supreme virtuosity.
June 13, 2015
It was Chaplin's last great film, and it showcases not just a love for the performing arts (she's a ballerina, he's a vaudevillian), but also Chaplin's effortless sentimentality.
August 08, 2011
What comes through most clearly in Limelight, however, is that Chaplin had come to terms with his life.
August 08, 2011
Chaplin, as usual, is the whole show, superb in this swansong statement about his own career and the old-style entertainment he best represented.
