Twenty Minutes of Love: Chaplin in all his quirky glory

Okay, so let’s just get the most important thing out of the way: Charlie Chaplin himself is not only the star but also the director here. Back in 1914, that was like Zlatan playing, coaching, and mowing the grass before the match – just doing everything himself and somehow pulling it off. Not gonna lie, Edna Purviance pops up as the love interest, and there’s this playful energy between them that’s kind of weirdly familiar. Like, you know when you’re at a Swedish fika and suddenly someone keeps fighting for the last dammsugare? That sense of awkward romance – but with more slapstick and less marzipan.

Old gags, new laughs

The whole film is basically Chaplin pinching a girl and stealing a pocket watch, and then everyone ends up bickering in the park. Classic silent comedy stuff, everyone moving a bit too fast and with those over-the-top faces. But I have to say, even now, it still tickles me. I saw this for the first time at Draken in Göteborg in ‘96, they had that old piano going and everything. There was this guy behind me who just wouldn’t stop laughing, and honestly, it got contagious. I nearly spilled my läsk all over a poor pensionär.

Does it still work today?

Hmm. Hard to say. I mean, maybe the humor is a bit old-fashioned if you’re used to Marvel explosions or Netflix’s “dark and gritty” stuff. But something about Chaplin’s silly walk and the way everyone in the film seems permanently windblown just gets me. Maybe it’s the nostalgia – or maybe, as we say in Skåne, “Man är som man är när man inte blev som man skulle.” If you’ve ever been hopeless in love or just got into silly trouble just to impress someone, you’ll get it.

So bring your patience and a cinnamon bun. Let yourself be eleven minutes old for twenty minutes.

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