Whether in the coal soot-dusted streets, Chaplin's childhood home, or the insane asylum where Chaplin deposits his ailing mum, the scenes have a very dim depressing palette. From a digital transfer standpoint however, they look excellent. The images are sharp and detailed, with true, solid blacks and absolutely no noise or graininess of any kind. Once Chaplin reaches America, more specifically, Hollywood, the sun really shines. This is where Sven Nykvist's style is immediately recognizable.
Many interiors glow with radiant warm golds and yellows, and some are bright white.
Large white fields appear on screen clean and smooth with no bleeding from surrounding colors. For, example the first time Charlie enters the main stage at his Keystone studios, he is a small figure standing in a huge white-walled room, lit from above by sunlight passing through an opaque plastic ceiling. All is white except for the clothes on the small man's back, however, he stands out as a sharp detailed figure against the white walls and there is no bleeding of colors, just a crisp, sharp, outline. When I saw this scene, I was struck by its clarity and reminded for the first time in quite a while, just how much better DVDs can look when made correctly - much better than LDs. I still have these 'LD flashbacks' on occasion when viewing a new DVD that has replaced an LD in my old collection.