- Actors: Raymond Cordy, Henri Marchand, Rolla France, Paul Ollivier, Jacques Shelly
- Directors: René Clair
- Writers: René Clair, Francis Picabia
- Producers: Alexandre Kamenka, Frank Clifford, Roger Le Bon, Rolf de Maré
- Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Subtitled, PAL
- Language French
- Subtitles: English
- Region: All Regions
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: U
- Studio: Criterion
- DVD Release Date: 20 Aug 2002
- Run Time: 83 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000067IY4
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 88,589 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This classic Rene Clair masterpiece is beautifully packaged using original poster artwork. It looks great. The content, considering it's age (1930's) is superb, an added joy is a short film from 1924 Entr'acte which is amazing. The film follows the fortunes of two convicts who take different paths in life but end up as worker and boss in a factory that resembles their incarceration so they run off to live as tramps.Nice booklet inside, excellent photo gallery and a biographies. Value for money. Wonderful
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Two convicts plot escape while they labour like Trojans in the prison workshop, mechanistically assembling wooden horses. Only one will manage to scale the walls, but he will go on to found a commercial empire, establishing himself as a major gramophone manufacturer. Years later, the second convict again crosses his path - he does so after having been coerced into becoming an employee, labouring in the factory, slavishly following the pace of the conveyor belt as he makes his small contribution to the assembly of gramophones. But he's not the only one to uncover the industrialist's past.
Rene Clair uses music, satire, and slapstick comedy to hammer home his commentary on the dehumanising effects of industrialisation. Released in 1931, it pays lavish tribute to Chaplin, Keaton, the Keystone Cops, and the comedy of the recently passed silent era. A big hit in its day, Clair's film would prove inspirational - Chaplin's 1936 "Modern Times" is based upon it.
The DVD provides an excellent black and white transfer and good sound quality - if a little quiet in places. Though dated in its style and simplistic in its political analysis, this remains a significant classic of European cinema which continues to entertain and amuse.
Format:DVD
Emile and Louis are two jailed friends who dream of freedom and plan to escape. Louis is successful and becomes a phonograph factory tycoon, after Emile finally breaks out he seeks work at Louis' factory. Tho initially the harshness of industrialisation keeps them poles apart, they both come to realise that friendship and being honest to oneself is far more rewarding than love or any sort of financial gain.
À nous la liberté {orginaly titled Liberté chérie} is a truly biting musical satire written and directed by the considerably talented René Clair. Filmed without a script, with Clair giving his actors free licence to improvise, the picture focuses on the dehumanisation of workers at an industrial plant. Shifting as it does from prison to this monstrosity place of work, the viewer is forced to wonder just exactly which is the prison of the picture? For workers trundle in to work, punching in to a clock and sitting at a conveyor belt for hours on end, they are merely robots for this corporate machine, life is indeed desperately dull.
Clair pulls no punches in portraying everyone who doesn't work on the shop floor as greedy capitalist schemers, one sequence literally see the elite grasping for Francs strewn by the mounting storm. This wind of change also releases Emile and Louis from their respective constraints, and it's thru this change that we the viewer are rewarded with a truly uplifting ending that closes the film magnificently. The picture was a flop on its initial release, managing to offend parties from various corners of the globe, but now in this day and age the film has come to be hailed as something of a French masterpiece, coming some five years before Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times {Clair's camp even wanted to sue Chaplin for plagiarism, but Clair actually took it as a compliment}, this clearly is the template movie for industrial indictment. At times devilishly funny, at others poignantly sad, À nous la liberté is a cinematic gem that all serious film lovers should digest at least once. 9/10
À nous la liberté {orginaly titled Liberté chérie} is a truly biting musical satire written and directed by the considerably talented René Clair. Filmed without a script, with Clair giving his actors free licence to improvise, the picture focuses on the dehumanisation of workers at an industrial plant. Shifting as it does from prison to this monstrosity place of work, the viewer is forced to wonder just exactly which is the prison of the picture? For workers trundle in to work, punching in to a clock and sitting at a conveyor belt for hours on end, they are merely robots for this corporate machine, life is indeed desperately dull.
Clair pulls no punches in portraying everyone who doesn't work on the shop floor as greedy capitalist schemers, one sequence literally see the elite grasping for Francs strewn by the mounting storm. This wind of change also releases Emile and Louis from their respective constraints, and it's thru this change that we the viewer are rewarded with a truly uplifting ending that closes the film magnificently. The picture was a flop on its initial release, managing to offend parties from various corners of the globe, but now in this day and age the film has come to be hailed as something of a French masterpiece, coming some five years before Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times {Clair's camp even wanted to sue Chaplin for plagiarism, but Clair actually took it as a compliment}, this clearly is the template movie for industrial indictment. At times devilishly funny, at others poignantly sad, À nous la liberté is a cinematic gem that all serious film lovers should digest at least once. 9/10
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
No Dadaists in Liberte.
Classic Rene Clair but Amazon's description of the starring actors is misleading. Dadaist Artists FRANCIS PICABIA, MARCEL DUCHAMP, & MAN RAY do not feature in A NOUS LA LIBERTE at... Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. G. Davis
Work is not Freedom
This a great comedy film. If you like Modern Times you will enjoy this. Extras are good as well, early short film and interview with the directors wife. Merci
Published on 2 Feb 2009 by Graeme Ward
Dated, but highly influential
Two convicts plot escape while they labour like Trojans in the prison workshop, mechanistically assembling wooden horses. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2005 by Budge Burgess
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