À Nous la Liberté

(1931)

★ 7 IMDb · 121 votes

Genres: Comedy, Music

Year: 1931

Runtime: 95 мин

Country: France

Director: René Clair

Cast: Henri Marchand, Raymond Cordy, Rolla France, Paul Ollivier, Jacques Shelly, Germaine Aussey, Léon Lorin, Vincent Hyspa, André Michaud, Maximilienne

Plot

In this classic French satire, Louis, a convict, escapes from prison and takes on legitimate work, making his way up in the business world. Eventually becoming the head of a successful factory, Louis opts to modernize his company with mechanical innovations. But when his friend Émile finally leaves jail years later and reunites with Louis, the past catches up with them. The two, worried about being apprehended by police, long to flee the confines of industry.

A famous left-wing satirical comedy about two ex-convicts, one of whom escaped jail and then worked his way up from salesman to factory owner, where he oversees a highly mechanized operation where the workers are reduced to mere automatons. Fearful of being exposed over his past, at first by his friend and later by another gangster, the owner chooses to give his factory to the workers, then escapes with his friend to the freedom of the open road. The production company for "A Nous la Liberte" was for more than a decade embroiled in a lawsuit claiming that Charles Chaplin had seen their film and plagiarized many ideas from it as he developed "Modern Times."