À nous la liberté
Directed by René Clair • 1931 • France
Starring Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France
One of the all-time comedy classics, René Clair’s À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ tells the story of Louis, an escaped convict who becomes a wealthy industrialist. Unfortunately, his past returns (in the form of old jail pal Emile) to upset his carefully laid plans. Featuring lighthearted wit, tremendous visual innovation, and masterful manipulation of sound, À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ is both a potent indictment of mechanized modern society and an uproarious comic delight.
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À nous la liberté
Directed by René Clair • 1931 • France
One of the all-time comedy classics, René Clair's À Nous La Liberté tells the story of Louis, an escaped convict who becomes a wealthy industrialist. Unfortunately, his past returns (in the form of old jail pal Emile) to upset his carefully laid plans. Feat...
Extras
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The Magic Park
Between À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ’s 1931 original release and its 1950 reissue, René Clair cut two sequences, totaling about 10 minutes. He had this one, set at an open-air dance, excised in a German lab before the Berlin premiere in 1931, based on comments by journalists who’d seen the film. All that re...
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The Singing Flower
Between À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ’s 1931 original release and 1950 reissue, René Clair cut two sequences, totaling about 10 minutes. From the scene where Emile lies in a field before being arrested for vagrancy, the director cut this image of a singing flower, finding it technically sloppy. It can still ...
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Bronja Clair on René Clair
Bronja Clair met her future husband in 1924, at the premiere of his film ENTR’ACTE, and became an active participant with him in the French art world. She remembers René Clair and his art in this 1998 interview.
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The Tobis v. Chaplin Affair
In this audio essay, recorded in London in March 2002, film historian David Robinson, author of “Chaplin: His Life and Art,” delves into the sordid history of the plagiarism lawsuit brought by Tobis Films, producers of À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ, against Charlie Chaplin and his film MODERN TIMES.
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Entr’acte
Directed by René Clair • 1924 • France
One of the seminal films of the surrealist art movement, ENTR’ACTE (1924) brought together three of the great French artists of its time: Francis Picabia, Erik Satie, and René Clair. Presented in two parts as the introduction and intermission of a ballet, E...
