A few days after last week’s MovieNight, and still haunted by bleak images of despair from last week’s intensely beautiful White Material, we found ourselves watching City Lights… quite by accident. Zofi’s father, Bolek (an ardent movie buff), invited us to sit down in front of his television for what he promised would be “a treat”. Somewhat irreverently, I was in the kitchen fixing a gin and tonic while the opening credits rolled, and I started watching from the scene pictured in this post. Within a few short moments, I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my cheeks. This had to be the next MovieNight!

As Thursday approached, I was starting to doubt whether I had made a good choice. Would you sophisticated MovieNighters really want to watch an 80 year old silent movie? It turns out that the answer to that rhetorical question was “Yes!” Chaplin’s magic enthralled a full house, and when I was occasionally able to stop laughing and look around the room, I saw faces lit up with joy. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you Bolek.

More about this film on IMDb