What to expect
Chaplin uses the revolving door, the well, and the spa’s rigid routines as comic systems that can be reversed. The short is an especially clear example of architecture generating gags.
How to ease in
The premise is enough: Chaplin’s guest is hiding drink inside a place devoted to abstinence. Watch how props and doorways transfer intoxication from one body to an entire institution.
Heads-up
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The spa tries to separate cure from pleasure, then one suitcase contaminates the distinction. I like how the building itself seems to become tipsy before the guests do.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
Where to go next
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