Few films can be called Chaplinesque. “I Served the King of England” is a Czech movie set before, during and after WW II which manages to conjure up not only the slapstick of Charles Chaplin but also much of wry political commentary of classics like “The Great Dictator”. Its lead character is a waiter who consistently makes good, his upward mobility enhanced during the years of German occupation through marriage to a petite blond ideologue. The subsequent fall comes at the hands of the communists.

The physical humour is complemented by an at times astonishing aesthetic. Veteran director Jiri Menzel loves framing beautiful women, adorning them with flowers and food, showing them in the woods or cart wheeling in the nude. Chaplin, old lecher that he was, would have equally approved this.

Richard Swainson