Editing The Circus (1928 film) (section)

==Analysis==
Film historian [[Jeffrey Vance]] views ''The Circus'' as an autobiographical metaphor:

<blockquote>
He joins the circus and revolutionizes the cheap little knockabout comedy among the circus clowns, and becomes an enormous star. But by the end of the movie, the circus is packing up and moving on without him. Chaplin's left alone in the empty circus ring... It reminds me of Chaplin and his place in the world of the cinema. The show is moving on without him. He filmed that sequence four days after the release of ''The Jazz Singer'' (the first successful talkie) in New York. When he put a score to ''The Circus'' in 1928, Chaplin scored that sequence with "[[Blue Skies (1926 song)|Blue Skies]]", the song Jolson had made famous, only Chaplin played it slowly and sorrowfully, like a funeral dirge.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Weddle|first=David|date=April 28, 2003|title=Nothing Obvious or Easy: Chaplin's Feature Films|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|volume=390|issue=11|issn=0042-2738|page=6}}</ref></blockquote>

In his commentary track for the Criterion Collection home video release of the film,  Vance notes: 
<blockquote>
Chaplin—a great cinema auteur—revealed his innermost feelings through his films. In The Circus, he fashioned a scenario that places The Tramp within the confines of a circus and, in so doing, documents, celebrates, and memorializes his own position as the greatest clown of his time. And, that accomplishment—beyond the wonderful comedy—ranks The Circus a major Chaplin film of considerable importance.<ref name="The Circus">{{cite web |title=The Circus |url=https://www.criterion.com/films/27563-the-circus |website=Criterion}}</ref>
</blockquote>