Chaplin: The Kid (1921), Goldrush (1925)

It is really isn't hard to imagine Charlie Chaplin being the most famous man on earth, and the Little Tramp being universally loved. He's still instantly recognisable - show anyone a picture and I'm pretty sure they would have a vague understanding of who it was, even if they'd never seen any of his films. He's iconic, it would be like asking someone what a dalek was before 2005 - they'd probably know, but they wouldn't know how. And the Litttle Tramp is such a loveable character - he's the everyman, with the same problems  and weaknesses as the rest of us, but with a sweet naivety and a heart of gold.

Neither films seemed horribly outdated to me. The film stock was lower quality, yes, but the way Chaplin used it was masterful. I could spot the editing grammar we still use creeping in, and some of the technical effects were still impressive: running the film backwards so it looked like Charlie was catching the bricks instead of dropping them. Simple genius.

And they're just so funny. The bricks I mentioned above were hilarious, and then there's the whole extended scene with the lift and the gag you kept expecting to happen but never came, instead there was a different, even funnier, gag. In Goldrush, even something as simple as the little tramp being followed by a black bear and only turning round when it has left him was funny.

Both films also have bags of emotion to them. In The Kid, it's the heart wrenching part where you think Charlie and the kid have been permanently parted, and it's unbearable. The silent emoting should look ridiculous and as overblown as a panto actor in a tv drama, but it works and it feels real. As does the kiss at the end of Goldrush, which we found out was in fact real, which explains quite a bit. Also the beauty of the moment when the little tramp, now a millionaire, finds that Georgia does in fact care about him, without even knowing about his wealth. And the reason this all looks and feels real for the viewer must be that it was real for Chaplin - he lived this.

The coincidence of these screenings with Richard's lessons on opening us up and making us look at ourselves as fodder for scriptwriting is either very very cleverly joined up, or just a happy accident. But it has made me think that you really can see when someone is creating truthfully from something they know, whether it's acting, writing or directing. And the strength of Chaplin's films are that he did everything, so it was his vision we see, and it happened to be brilliant. Of course, not everyone is Charlie Chaplin, but it does motivate me to try to achieve that unity of purpose in what I do, whether I'm holding the reigns or realising someone else's idea.