Sometimes when things get tough for me, I find comfort in remembering something I learned a long time ago: an oyster needs to be bothered by a grain of sand to eventually create a pearl. That thought always makes whatever I’m dealing with feel less overwhelming and helps me see past the immediate difficulties. Thinking about that idea, especially when considering the history of silent films, it strikes me that some of the most important movies came from incredibly difficult periods—like the eleven months it took to make Sir Charles Chaplin's 'The Circus'. I’m a big fan of both silent movies and early comedy, and while I like Buster Keaton better than Chaplin, I always appreciate his best work, even films as late as ‘The Great Dictator’. But ‘The Circus’ has a special significance for me. It’s amazing to think about all the terrible things that happened during its production—the film negative being destroyed, the studio burning down, Lita Grey's divorce and the resulting scandals in the press, Chaplin suffering a nervous breakdown, his mother dying, the IRS demanding over a million dollars in back taxes, even having a circus wagon stolen. It’s almost unbelievable that any movie came out of all that, much less one as funny and thoughtful as 'The Circus', and that he managed to bounce back from such a rough patch to have an amazing career as one of the greatest actors and directors ever. His life felt like a constant circus, yet somehow he kept his composure and got through it remarkably well. Given all those challenges during those eleven months (which I think would make for a compelling film in their own right), ‘The Circus’ might be my favorite of Chaplin's films, even if it isn't as riotously funny as 'The Gold Rush' or 'Modern Times'.

Source on TMDB