A Final Bow

We mostly remember silent-film pioneer Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp, the iconic, sweet-faced, mustachioed ne’er-do-well character in a bowler hat who bumbled through poignant, long-ago adventures in black and white. But Chaplin’s 1952 talkie Limelight explored different and more ironic ground, as the aging film star walked through autobiographical territory as a has-been vaudevillian comic who meets a suicidal ballerina played by Claire Bloom. They lean on one another as they attempt to come back from personal adversity. The film — which met with adversity of its own due to Chaplin’s Communist leanings — has been called everything from a triumph to a sham, and even features Chaplin’s silent-era rival Buster Keaton in a musical cameo.

See Limelight, the last of three talkie screenings kicking off this summer’s Chautauqua Silent Film Festival, tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the rustic Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road in Boulder. Admission is $5 to $10; visit chautauqua.com for tickets and a full festival schedule.

Wed., June 4, 7:30 p.m., 2014