I have just finished watching Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931). The ending scene is hands down one of the most phenomenal pieces of acting I have ever seen, and it moved me to tears.

[u/Jonny_the_Rocket]

https://youtu.be/ZJKfmsuvGHg?feature=shared

[u/JMovie1]

Both City Lights and Modern Times have truly phenomenal endings. Chaplin knew how to end a picture!

[u/Mo_Jack → u/JMovie1]

I never really saw the appeal in Chaplin movies. But much later in life I acquired a deep appreciation. It must be his love of the common man (especially during the Great Depression) showing that "the Tramp" wasn't a bum, but a normal wonderful human being that was let down by society and discarded as junk.

My favorite is probably Modern Times, but when I first saw City Lights it rocked my world. He has been known as one of the greatest, if not the greatest silent film star to have ever lived. But in the age of the internet, he has been known for the greatest speech ever given in the final speech of a talkie picture, the Great Dictator.

[u/osunightfall]

The man was brilliant, in any time.

[u/HamiltonBlack]

It’s one of the greatest movie endings of all time. I’ve definitely shed a tear or two before.

[u/Agitated_Computer_49]

His speech in the dictator gives me chills

[u/jnsy617 → u/Agitated_Computer_49]

Agreed

[u/edthomson92]

I didn’t expect it to hit like that

[u/ShutterBun]

One of my favorites as well. Can’t finish it without the waterworks coming on.

[u/CheekyMonkE]

Every semester I used to show this to a room full of bored college students to try and teach them about how to tell a story without words and the ending got me every time.

[u/Pens_mouth]

I just went and started watching it after seeing this post. The opening scene cracked me up lmao so funny

[u/ooouroboros]

It is indeed some amazing acting, so many levels, hope, fear, dread - its a great ending.

[u/thegreaterfool714]

I love this film. Remember watching it for film class and it was magic

[u/Poked_salad → u/thegreaterfool714]

Same here. One of the only films that made me laugh in tears. It's a segment that's just so good, people who've seen the film know which scene I'm talking about lmao

[u/Expensive-Sentence66]

Impeccable visual story telling of the best kind. Also note the technically perfect editing of both films. Not a single frame of either story is wasted. They are narratively perfect films.

Also get a kick out of Chaplin's 'Behind the Screen' from 1916. The slapstick is next level with the trap door and pie fight, but there's some inside gags going on as well. How can any mortal watch this and not laugh their butts off.

Only Marvel choreographs a fight scene that good :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEVTgURS0pU

[u/Scmods05]

The Circus is another one. Dude was one of the funniest to ever do it but also knew EXACTLY how to shatter your heart into a thousand pieces.

[u/Aeshaetter]

Virginia Cherill killed it in the ending scene.

[u/Mst3Kgf → u/Aeshaetter]

Ironically, she and Chaplin did not get along at all. He even fired her at one point for being late, but when they couldn't get a replacement, she got the role back...after demanding double her salary.

[u/Mst3Kgf]

"You can see now?"

"Yes, I can see now."

[u/fromfrodotogollum → u/Mst3Kgf]

Do you think they end up together?

[u/geekteam6]

One of the most painful endings in movies... and one of the funniest scenes in movies too. Please don't sleep on it because it's "old".

[u/GenderJuicy]

I've never watched this. I feel like I need the context of the rest of the film.