Jackson Booth-Millard This French film was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and from director René Clair (Beau Travail) it sounded like an interesting concept, I was kind of surprised to see only an average rating by the critics, but that didn't put me off wanting to see it. Basically in a French prison, cell mates Émile (Henri Marchand) and Louis (Raymond Cordy) are friends, and day after day they work in labour assembling various things, e.g. wood or metal products, and together they plan to make an escape. After the plan goes ahead only Louis successfully gets out and makes it, and on the outside after some time he reestablishes himself as a captain of industry and opening his own phonograph manufacturing company which gains good success. Émile feeling he would not be able to do it without the assistance of his friend has no further plans to try and escape again, but he does manage to seize an opportunity to do it himself, and he manages it. On the outside he goes to the primary phonograph factory owned by Louis and gets a job there, he has no idea his friend is the owner, and when they do reunite it coincides with the plan to upgrade factory operations to supply products mechanised. While dealing with their lives, issue with women and staying one step ahead of the law who may be searching for them, and the modernisation they learn will ultimately lead to emotional freedom that could not have come from escaping the prison confines, but they also find freedom brings some consequences. Also starring Rolla France as Jeanne, Paul Ollivier as Uncle Paul Imaque, Jacques Shelly as Paul, André Michaud as Foreman, Germaine Aussey as Maud and Alexander D'Arcy as Gigolo. The two leading actors playing the prisoners who may actually want to do some kind of good after escaping their captivity are good, I recognised immediately that this film obviously influenced Sir Charlie Chaplin to create the film Modern Times, there was even a failed legal battle by a producer to claim for plagiarism, but the director felt flattered, it is a funny film displaying then modern life in a certain environment, and a most watchable satire. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Art Direction. Good!

Michael Neumann René Clair's playful machine-age satire owes a large debt to Charlie Chaplin, who later returned the honor by borrowing extensively from Clair's innovative early sound comedy for his own late, great silent feature 'Modern Times'. But Clair went one step further in his original vision of a clockwork society, choreographing his comedy around recurring patterns, synchronized movements, and endless progressions of the type Buster Keaton loved to invent. The timing is precise, the humor is disarming, and Clair's message is simple: mechanical gadgets may be predictable, but human beings most certainly are not, and the awkward alliance between the two can be a fertile source of amusement.I was fortunate to see À Nous la Liberté on the big screen in the mid-1980s (at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley), alongside Fernand Leger's famous abstract short 'Ballet Mécanique' (1924): a patchwork of interesting and largely spontaneous visual ideas and juxtapositions.

swdavies49 Two of the previous reviews have the names of the main characters reversed, another is reviewing the wrong movie, and lots of them can't spell. But anyway, the film is both elegant and funny, the characters make wonderful facial expressions, and even though the version I watched was a little scanty with the subtitles, it wasn't hard to understand what was happening. I think the characters are very appealing. They are not sentimentalized as some of Chaplin's characters are, but they are still very sympathetic. What surprised me the most was how modern the sets looked - very spare and elegant. I don't know if actual places in the 1930's ever looked like the President's home, and I suspect very few places anywhere ever did, alas.

Ed Uyeshima This early talkie is an unexpected joy to watch and an artful piece of transitional cinema. It's difficult to believe that Charlie Chaplin claimed he never saw René Clair's fanciful 1931 musical comedy since it predates many of the same leitmotifs that came up in "Modern Times" five years later, including pointed jabs at corporate greed interlaced with Keystone Cops-style slapstick. In fact, Clair seems completely inspired by Chaplin in the way he carefully orchestrates the chase scenes and the robotic assembly line in this film, so much so that Chaplin borrowed back the visual cues in "Modern Times".Clair sets up his story as an elaborate parable centered on two convicts, best friends Émile and Louis, who make toy horses in the prison assembly line. In a long-planned attempt to escape, Émile escapes thanks to a generous leg-up from Louis, who is caught and returned back to their cell. Years pass, and Émile becomes a successful industrialist in charge of a phonograph manufacturing business. Meanwhile, Louis serves out his term and upon release, ironically finds himself working in the assembly line of Émile's factory. After some hesitation, Louis and Émile reunite and join forces with a rapid-fire series of chaotic complications leading the two friends to realize that a life away from work may be their true fate.The film master does not belabor his sociopolitical statements about materialism, but it is intriguing in hindsight to appreciate the film's prescience in showing France disconnected from the encroaching Nazi menace. Moreover, the film boasts startling visual elements thanks to Lazare Meerson's unmistakably Expressionist art direction. Henri Marchand and Raymond Cordy make a fine comedy team as Émile and Louis, though what really shines is the timeless spirit that Clair imbues this film. The 2002 Criterion Collection DVD includes two deleted scenes, a brief 1998 interview with Clair's widow, and a twenty-minute short, "Entr'acte", that Clair made with French artists Francis Picabia and Erik Satie. Speaking of Chaplin, in an audio essay, film historian David Robinson describes the plagiarism suit that the film's producers brought against Charlie Chaplin when "Modern Times" was released.