It’s one of my favourite films ever. Saw it for the first time when I was a kid and it left a lasting impression. It tells the stories of a little Jewish barber and a dictator, both played by Chaplin, their parallel stories and how one eventually gets mistakn for the other.

The older I got the more I got to appreciate it. Chaplin made it at a time (production started just after Germany invaded Poland) before the US had joined the war and when it wasn’t the done thing to make movies criticising the Nazis, particularly in comedy.

The closing speech is the one that was just a touch too egalitarian and got him branded a communist by the Joe McCarthys of the world later in his life. It was his first talkie even though silents had been gone since the 20s. The three moments I found are the most famous. The first when the barber shaves a client, the second the legendary dance with the globe and the third the final speech when the barber has been mistaken for the dictator Adenoid Hynkel and is forced to make a speech after a famous victory.

It’s all truly beautiful.