From Amazon.com
Made in 1928 while he was in the middle of a painful divorce case, Charlie Chaplin's
The Circus was so associated with bad memories for its maker that he refused even to mention it in his 1964 autobiography. Consequently, it has enjoyed less of a reputation than such films as
The Gold Rush (1925) and
City Lights (1931). However, while it's not quite in their league,
The Circus undoubtedly deserves to be rescued from relative obscurity.
Here, Chaplin's Tramp is taken on as a clown at the circus, having been chased into the big tent by a policeman wrongly suspected of theft and wowing the audience with his pratfalls. He falls in love with the ill-treated ringmaster's daughter (Merna Kennedy) but is swiftly rivaled by a new addition to the circus, a handsome tightrope walker. To try to win back her affections, the Tramp himself attempts the same act, culminating in the best sequence of the film, when he is assailed by monkeys as he totters amateurishly and precariously along a rope suspended high in the tent. Although The Circus is marred by the rather hackneyed and (even in 1928) stale melodramatic device of the cruel father and imploring daughter, it scores high on its slapstick content, with routines involving a hall of mirrors and a mishap with a magician's equipment demonstrating Chaplin's dazzling ability to choreograph apparently improvised mayhem. --David Stubbs
Chronique amazon.fr
Le Cirque est un retour aux sources pour Chaplin qui a débuté sa carrière sur les planches par des numéros de pantomime. Chaplin incarne une nouvelle fois Charlot, son personnage fétiche de vagabond, avec un plaisir non dissimulé. Pris pour un pickpocket, Charlot trouve refuge dans un cirque, et, pénétrant par erreur sur la piste, déclenche les rires du public. Aussitôt engagé comme clown, il devient bientôt la vedette du cirque. Embarquant le spectateur avec lui dans le tourbillon du cirque, le héros solitaire nous entraîne dans une suite d'aventures, démontrant à tout moment son sens inné du gag et son extrême sensibilité. Fidèle à lui-même, Chaplin nous offre un film poignant où le plus pur burlesque côtoie le tragique.
--Christophe Gagnot
