The Kid

Charlie Chaplin's 1921 silent feature, his first feature length.
Obviously, it's a masterpiece. Chaplin's gait is as always perfect, hillarious, somehow deeply emotional, surely one could say sentimental, but then he gets away with it.... The comedy is often on side-moments, on small aspects that nearly go unnoticed by the consciousness. The grate in the street, the pillion, the hand in the wrong place.
The direction is incredibly simple, in its perfect accuracy; the outdoor sets are stripped, occasionally almost to abstraction. It is the classic 'long for comedy, closer for emotion'. With takes extended slightly, and longer, for scenes of confusion. Generally, we have a full body or medium shot, with the whole frame used as the staging unfolds in a complex arrangement of two person marks.
The child is stunningly used. Frequent cuts from one to another focus the action in this way, as does a certain amount of iris masking.
As for the plot, we have classic themes of misrepresentation, fighting against cruelty. It is remarkable how much our Tramp is let to get away with. It is in his tiniest actions that he is constantly redeemed, the world, rather than he, is absurd. The episodic structure allows for a simple acrobatics (perfectly choreographed, obviously) of the boxing match. The slight questionable sexual politics of the Melies-like heaven sequence has obviously dated.
Twice, earlier on, Chaplin looks at the camera. In these moments, it is relaised how closely involved one is. One doesn't need to say more as an evaluation, just to say; this is a Chaplin film.