Silent Films In City Lights

Being an auditory learner it is easy to say silent films are not my thing. I like to know every word of every conversation in a film. Although I had watched few silent films prior to City Lights I didn 't really have a great perception of them, I just assumed i disliked them all. City Lights was a great film which I really enjoyed. My conceptions of silent films prior to this film were that they were boring, tried too hard to be funny, and difficult to understand because of the lack of dialogue. I am a very curious person so I like to know every detail of every scene and although it is easy to understand the basics of what is going on throughout the film, you don 't get every detail of the “conversation” just the general idea. If I 'm being …show more content…
I felt as if the producers over used dramatic sound effects to make up for the lack of dialogue which again in turn made the film seem cliche and not very funny at all. I am the type of person to find nearly everything funny except when it is tried too hard to be funny. Also, I felt as if the sole purpose of all silent films were to be funny and had no real plot. This film had just the right amount of comedy, some parts were funny but it had a real plot. The comedic parts tied in well with the plot. The funny scenes were not overdone which was quite refreshing and made me enjoy the parts that were meant to be funny. Instead of sitting there rolling my eyes and thinking “oh here comes another overacted attempt at being funny.” I did, however, feel that the opening scene where the Tramp ripped his pants on the statue was a bit much and could have been either left out or be put in a different place in the …show more content…
I was pleasantly surprised to know that the film was not complete silence. There was no dialogue but the musicians sound effects used made it possible for the audience to understand what was going on at all times. The title cards were used when the scene was a bit more difficult to understand but at the same time they did not give away the whole conversation, just enough toilet us know what was going on. There really was no need for dialogue because of how well everything was explained without dialogue. The music used throughout was very suiting for whatever was going on in each scene. It changed from fast pace when he was in the boxing ring to soft and sweet when he was reunited with the love of his life. My preconceived notion of silent films being difficult to understand because of the lack of dialogue has been completely