À Nous la Liberté

Two prisoners try to escape; one gets out, the other is caught. Louis, the one who escaped, becomes over the years an industrialist who owns a record factory. When Emile is released and takes a job at that same factory he recognises his old friend. René Clair builds the factory exactly like the prison: the same rows, the same bell, the same surveillance. The assembly line sequence and the critique of automation are known for anticipating Modern Times directly; the German production company wanted to sue Chaplin and Clair objected and would not pursue it. In the first years of sound the film uses music and noise almost entirely as rhythmic material. It ends by giving up property altogether. Who it is for: viewers who like early French cinema and social satire. Who it is not for: anyone wanting realism, since the film proceeds almost like a musical.