A Nous La Liberte

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, people have been abusing gadgets that work and the bourgeoisie that doesn't. But few have been as gracefully sarcastic as Rene Clair in his movie A Nous La Liberte, made in 1932. Just re-released, the film is still a model of good-humored satire.

In rambling fashion Clair's plot tells of two prison buddies who want to escape their dull routine "pour la liberte." One of them succeeds and soon becomes president of a phonograph factory. The other, an incorrigible remanticist, is captured. After his subsequent release, he takes a job on the assembly line in his materialist friend's plant. The two discover each other, the police discover the materialist, and they start all over again.

Writer-director Clair uses this circular plot to create a series of situations which are not only broadly funny in themselves, but subtly satiric of modern phenomena like assembly lines, time clocks, and politicians. Emphasizing visual humor, A Nous La Liberte deflates these institutions swiftly and economically. And George Auric's musical score, which supplements and sometimes replaces the sparse dialogue, is as delightful as it is appropriate.

The principal characters, set against a ballet-like background of black-suited functionaries running back and forth across the screen, are somewhat unreal, as those in fantasy should be. But they seem to enjoy living in the world M. Clair has made for them. After a drunken dinner, for instance, the materialist exudes enthusiasm as he pelts his own portrait with wine glasses. In short Clair has shown that there are pleasanter ways to criticize the advances of modern technology than through the grim didacticism of an Orwellian nightmare.