Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus

Laugh along with The Little Tramp as we celebrate Silent Movie Day with a special big screen presentation of Charlie Chaplin’s hilarious 1928 silent comedy The Circus, in 35mm! Silent Movie Day is an annual nationwide event dedicated to celebrating and preserving the magic of silent movies.

“If you’re at all interested in cinema, then you’re interested in silent cinema, because that’s where the art form originates.  That’s where the language of cinema came into being.” – Martin Scorsese

In the last film he made during the silent era, Charlie Chaplin revels in the art of the circus, paying tribute to the acrobats and pantomimists who inspired his virtuoso slapstick and pratfalls. After being mistaken for a pickpocket, Chaplin’s Little Tramp flees into the ring of a traveling circus and accidentally becomes the star of the show, delighting patrons who think his escape from peace officer John Law is part of the act, and of course, our hero falls for the troupe’s beautiful bareback rider along the way. This gag-packed comedy gem ranks among Chaplin’s finest, thanks to some of the most audacious set pieces of the director/performer’s career, including a close brush with a lion and a climactic tightrope walk with a barrelful of monkeys. Rereleased in 1969 with a new score by Chaplin, The Circus is an uproarious high wire act that showcases silent cinema’s most popular entertainer at the peak of his comic powers. (Dir. by Charlie Chaplin, 1928, USA, silent with intertitles, 72 mins., Rated G)