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À nous la liberté

Screening on Film
Directed by René Clair.
With Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Paul Olivier.
France, 1931, 35mm, black & white, 104 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA

Two convicts attempt a jailbreak but only one succeeds. The escapee goes on to become a successful businessman working for a corporation which favors automation over human ingenuity. His comfortable existence is challenged when he is revisited by his former prisonmate. One of Clair's true masterworks, the film is often cited as the inspiration for Chaplin's Modern Times. Like Chaplin, Clair succeeds in combining a strong social critique with uproariously funny comic moments.

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Rosine Mbakam, 2025 McMillan-Stewart Fellow