Horst_In_Translation Review of Twenty Minutes of Love

Twenty Minutes of Love (1914)

Sadly I don't really feel the love for this one here

[4/10 · 9 February 2018]

"Twenty Minutes of Love" is an American black-and-white silent short film from 1914, so this one is already over a century old, actually 105 years next year, and this one was made by the still pretty young Charlie Chaplin, who not only plays the main character, but also co-directed this one. The cast includes several names that film fans of this era and fans of Chaplin's other works may recognize to some extent. The action is taking place at a park this time where Chaplin causes quite a great deal of havoc to the other visitors, most of it unintentionally or from the heat of the moment though and not really intentionally. Malice is absent you could say, but chaos sure is present as a consequence of Chaplin's actions. Still all in all, he may not be at his best yet at that point as story and acting all in all are far from memorable. Still if you like Chaplin more than I do, then perhaps you will enjoy the watch nonetheless I guess. But I still cannot give it a positive recommendation as the only moment I found hilarious in a positive way was when he accidentally hits that lady near the end and that just isn't enough for this runtime, which by the way was way under 20 minutes in every version I found. I think it has rather to do with more fps than lost scenes. A thumbs-down for this one here as I did not feel the love and felt that premise and location offered the possibility of a far better outcome. Watch something else instead.