freedom for us

A welcome diversion for me after a very tough week, René Clair’s 1931 film À nous la liberté tells the story of two cellmates, Louis and Emile.  Louis escapes prison and eventually becomes a phonograph mogul, while Emile upon his release finds himself a worker in Louis's prison-like phonograph factory.  Clair handles any subtext about the dangers of industrialization with a light touch, like the scene of a mishap on the assembly-line floor that is so humorous you can see why Chaplin copied it in Modern Times.  Clair was a genuine whiz with sound as well, mixing music and dialogue effortlessly at a time when many filmmakers were still sticking to the silent format, and the film also holds some fantastic modernist visual sequences such as the one in the still above.  A very smart, very fun movie.