Film Concert: Charlie Chaplin »City Lights«

Charlie Chaplin had a great dread of speaking – after all, his art was a silent one. By the time »City Lights« was released in cinemas in 1931, audiences were already used to seeing actors speak on screen. But Chaplin continued to use title cards to put words into the mouths of his tramp and the tramp’s great love, a blind flower girl. That’s lucky for the Symphoniker Hamburg, because it means they can present this masterpiece as part of their popular film concert series. Chaplin »composed« the music himself: he dictated his ideas to a musician who really knew how to read and write notes.