Film Review
René Clair's exuberant anti-capitalist satire
À nous la liberté was
one of the early triumphs of sound cinema and is still considered one
of the all-time greats of French cinema.
The film is a light-hearted comic tour de force, erupting into unbridled farce in a
few places, and yet it also offers an intelligent reflection on one of
the major social preoccupations of the time: the gradual dehumanisation
of mankind through technological progress. In characteristically
humorous vein, Clair gives us a speculative glimpse of the future in
which human beings are reduced to quasi-machines to meet the
remorseless capitalist imperative for ever greater efficiency and
increased output. The demoralising repetitiveness of life on the
factory production line mirrors the endless monotony of the prison
scenes at the start of the film, and both contain echoes of the
Fascistic nightmare that would overrun most of Europe in the
1930s. In an era of immense social and technological change,
Clair poses a timely question: what is man's destiny, to be a free
individualist or a robotic slave to corporate greed?
What is perhaps most surprising about this film is, that having
conjured up a truly horrific Dystopian vision of the future, one of Art
Deco-flavoured uniformity, Clair demolishes it with casual ease, so
confident is he that mankind's natural inclination for freedom will
prevent him from ending up as a mindless mass of components in a
soulless capitalist machine. The film ends with the factory fully
automated, allowing the proletariat (not the industrialists) who now
own it to spend their days doing the things they enjoy, like fishing
and singing. Today, Clair's version of Utopia appears
absurdly naïve, a far cry from the more likely outcome that is
portrayed in Fritz Lang's
Metropolis (1927), where
humanity is split into two totally separate strata, the wealthy elite
and the toiling lowlife.
As in René Clair's previous two films -
Sous les toits de Paris (1930)
and
Le
Million (1931) -
À
nous la liberté's most striking aspect is its highly
inventive use of sound.
Whilst many of his contemporaries were
content to limit their films' use of synchronised sound to recorded
dialogue, Clair employs sound far more imaginatively to consolidate the
images on the screen. The repetitive aching thud-thud-thud of
clogs and hammers in the opening sequences drives home the
monotony of prison routine, and is reprised in the factory
scenes, the never-ending clunk-clunk-clunk on the production line
becoming a powerful aural motif for the dehumanisation of mankind by
the twin demons of capitalist greed and technological
advancement. This grim expression of grinding mechanical drudgery
is effectively counterpointed by Georges Auric's uplifting music,
which, in its glorious celebration of freedom and friendship, evokes
those nobler human qualities by which the ordinary man will (in Clair's
view) ultimately overcome bondage and exploitation. The
profit-hungry capitalists dance to an altogether different tune, the
sound of a howling windstorm, as they go chasing after banknotes in a
mad self-interested frenzy.
Charlie Chaplin is reputed to have been influenced by
À nous la liberté
when he made
Modern Times (1936), which
repeats many of the themes and situations of Clair's film, most notably
its strident anti-capitalist subtext. Shortly after
Modern Times was released, Tobis,
the German-owned company that financed and distributed Clair's film,
threatened to sue Chaplin on a charge of plagiarism unless he withdrew
his film from circulation.
Clair himself played no part in the
ensuing legal battle and was flattered by the idea that Chaplin, whom
he greatly admired, should be inspired by his work. After years
of persistent threats of legal action, Chaplin finally paid Tobis a sum
of money to end what he regarded as unjustified harassment.
Although Chaplin vehemently denied the plagiarism charge (and even
claimed never to have seen Clair's film), there are some striking
similarities between
Modern Times
and
À nous la liberté.
The production line sequences in both films employ very similar gags
and the two films end in an identical fashion, with the two main
characters setting off down a country road to a better life. Was
Chaplin really copying Clair, or is this simply a case of two great
minds thinking alike?
© James Travers 2001
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next René Clair film:
Le Million (1931)
Film Synopsis
Émile is serving a stretch in prison when
he strikes up a friendship with fellow prisoner Louis.
Together, the two men attempt a break-out which
results in Émile's re-capture. Louis is
fortunate enough to escape and immediately he sets about
trying to make an honest living. Some years later, Émile
manages to liberate himself, and promptly falls under the
spell of an attractive young woman. He follows her to an enormous factory
that manufactures phonographs and unwittingly gets himself onto
the company's payroll. After causing a minor disaster on the
production line, Émile is taken to the factory's owner and is
surprised to find that his boss is none other than his old prison friend Louis.
Wary of the scandal that may blow up if his past were to become
common knowledge, Louis pretends not to recognise Émile at
first, but he has a change of heart when he recalls
their former friendship. After Émile has given his reason
for visiting the factory, Louis shows his magnanimity by bringing
Émile and the woman he loves together. Unfortunately, the
plans of both men are placed in jeopardy when their fellow prison inmates
turn up unexpectedly and threaten to denounce Louis as an escaped convict...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.