Welcome to week three of my New Years resolution! This week I get to watch Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. I've never been a huge Chaplin fan. I've seen quite a lot of his work, so be assured, I'm not basing my opinion on just one or two films. They're good. They're really good, just not my cup of tea. I like The Kid. But who doesn't like The Kid? You need professional help if you don't, cause there is something wrong with you. I don't think I'm sensitive enough for Chaplin. He's a little too subtle and gentle for me. I do appreciate him though. So this was a film that I really didn't mind having to watch.
I was left on my own again for the menu for this one. I couldn't find a thing in Movie Night Menus. Since I'd never seen City Lights, I was at a bit of a loss for inspiration. I did look up the cast and saw one of the characters is an eccentric millionaire, and I know that Chaplin is British. Put those two together, and what do you have? High Tea! Hey, it makes sense to me! My resolution, my rules! And I'm a total anglophile, so this was gonna be fun!
High tea usually involves finger sandwiches, crumpets and scones with clotted cream and fancy jam/preserves, froufrou pastries(FROUFROU isn't used enough!!), champagne, and of course tea. I have beautiful flowering tea and a teapot to go with it and tea cups and saucers that I never get to use, so I couldn't wait to get on this one! So pinkies up people! Let's do this!
I decided to serve two different kinds of finger sandwiches, egg salad and cucumber. I make fantastic egg salad. Really light and refreshing. It has hard boiled eggs, peppers(any kind but green, I used orange cause this is what I had), green onions, celery, olive oil mayo, little bit of dijon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. All the veggies in it just make it to die for. It's all crunchy and good. Sometimes I even serve it with crackers and have guests use it as dip. I cut the crusts off of some thin bakery white bread, cause that's what you do, and loaded up the sandwiches with deliciousness. The I made some really simple cucumber sandwiches. I managed to score a mini loaf of rye bread. It was adorable, and I thought it might make the sandwiches a little tastier. All I did was smear(I love this word) whipped cream cheese on each side of the bread, sprinkle it with dried dill weed(I couldn't find fresh ::::sigh:::), and put a slice of cucumber in between. I mostly wanted the cream cheese to be honest.
I wasn't in the mood for scones. I thought they would be just too heavy. Scones are like a meal onto themselves. I do love them though and I make some killer scones. So I decided on crumpets! Now I have never had crumpets, but they looked much lighter than scones. I found them on Amazon of all places and had them delivered! Convenience! Love it! I had clotted cream on hand(anglophile), but had to buy some fancy preserves. I choose cherry preserves because I love cherry. I just popped the crumpets in the toaster. Easy!
I bought a couple of different kinds of pastries. Not as froufrou as I wanted, but they were what I could get. I wanted petit fours, but didn't have time to go to a real bakery, so grocery store pastries were it. I got a chocolate eclair and a red velvet creamy thingy. Good enough. The eclair got a little smashied though.
As for the champagne, since I can't drink, I got some sparkling white grape juice. Close enough for me. Plus I got to use my depression glass champagne glasses! Never got to use them before. Makes the sadness of no real booze a little easier. Kinda.
High Tea with my fancy flowering tea and mismatched depression glass!
That's a lot of food!
Even Chaplin thinks Harry Myers is awesome!
Then, of course, there is Virginia Cherrill. The absolutely lovely Virginia Cherrill. She was exquisite. Chaplin had spotted her at a boxing match of all places and noticed her gaze. He said, "She could look blind without being offensive." And he was absolutely right. I can't even describe it. She was staring but not staring. Weird, perfect. And when her sight is restored, well, she looked like a sighted person. Dunno how she did it. She was so elegant and gentle, you just fell in love with her. You could see why The Tramp just adored her from beginning. I wanted to buy all of her flowers too!
Lookit that, Virginia Cherrill does everything just right.
One scene that stands out for everyone is the boxing scene. The choreography is amazing! Watch the film just for this part. Really. It's funny and skillful and really impressive. If I saw more of this in Chaplin's films, I would love him more.
This really is genius!
But lets face it, Chaplin's movies were all Chaplin. He controlled every single aspect, so I give him real credit for what he got out of his actors. He also choose the actors perfectly for this film. So I give that to him too. However, the ending to this film left much to be desired for me. It seemed to just kind of end. Like the last episode of The Sopranos. I was like, wait, what? Everyone raves about the ending. And I agree the acting was great here, but what happened? The girl just realizes he's her savior, but then what? Nothing. The End. Hmmmm. I didn't like it.
Virginia is just as confused as I am about the ending.
That and Chaplin's smile kinda creeps me out. It ain't right.
Just a little creepy....
I really enjoyed this evening. The meal hit the spot, and movie was much better than I thought. I don't think it is the sheer perfection that everyone says it is, but I have some pretty strong opinions about Chaplin. Maybe it's unfair and just because everyone raves about him. I will totally watch this movie again though. It's really good and I got a lot out of it. It made me appreciate Chaplin more.
Love,
Ollie
PS: I highly recommend crumpets! They're like chewy spongy english muffins. When they're warm they just soak up anything you put on them. Gonna try them with butter next. Cause butter..... ::::drool::::
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