A lovable vagabond falls in love with a blind flower seller and does everything he can to help her. Slapstick and tender moments alternate with observations of the bustling city life, all without a single spoken word. Chaplin’s famous dictum, that a film is like a tree—you have to shake it so that everything superfluous falls away and only the essential form remains—is perhaps most beautifully realized in City Lights.

Long after sound films had taken over the market, Chaplin deliberately stuck to the silent film format and expanded it with sound effects and music that he composed himself. The combination of choreographed, physical comedy and emotional depth, the shift between laughter and seriousness, makes it clear just how much Chaplin’s work relies on nonverbal communication, rhythmic movement, and the art of pantomime. Qualities that continue to inspire to this day! Though not a debut, this is the first film we’ve shown in the Blue Salon, marking our tenth anniversary!

The Karlsruhe University of Arts opened in Grünwinkel in 1992. The later HfG professor Stephan Krass was there for SWR.
When Krass filmed a short report on the opening of the HfG for the culture magazine Bizz in 1992, he probably had no idea that a few years later he would be teaching at the same university himself - which had since moved to the former IWKA factory building.