Charlot walks so hastily in his silent film comedies not to make us laugh, but because of a technological problem. When Charles Chaplin made his first films, they were recorded at a rate of eighteen frames per second; By the end of the 1920s, the projectors were already working at twenty-four, and hence the movements seemed somewhat faster than normal, something that does not happen with modern methods such as DVD.
We associate this crazy speed of the characters with silent cinema because the eighteen-frame system was in force until 1927. On October 6 of that year, El cantor de jazz was released, considered the first sound film in the history of cinema, which revolutionized the industry and ushered in twenty-four recording technology. For this reason, this fun rhythm is also inherent to black and white cinema, which was the one in force at the time.
The same idea of variable speed has been used in the opposite direction by film directors for many years. These are the slow motion scenes, which are actually shot at a higher speed (48 or 72 frames per second) and then projected at the standard speed, creating the characteristic gradual movement effect.
Image: Scene from the movie Charlot changes his profession, shot in 1915.
