A Nous La Liberte !
(Freedom for Us)

Release date 18th December 1931
Country : France
Running time : 104 mins
Genre : Comedy / Musical
Starring Henri Marchand, Raymond Cordy
Screenplay by Rene Clair
Directed by Rene Clair

An ex-convict works his way up from salesman to factory owner. An old cell-mate comes to work at the factory where the workers are reduced to mere automatons. Blackmailed about his past the factory owner takes to the road with his old friend singing "A Nous la liberte" : freedom for us.

Delightful early talkie French comedy musical with much to say about mechanised labour,also incredibly clever in its use of sound   

Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) conveyed similar leftwing views on the impact of monotonous mechanised labour on the human spirit and lifted a conveyor belt scene from Clair's film even though they differed in many other respects. This was enough though for the original distribution company Tobis to sue Chaplin for plagiarism. Clair greatly admired Chaplin and didn't want anything to do with it, he was flattered he said if Charlie had borrowed anything saying he'd certainly copied enough from him. Chaplin eventually settled but never admitted to the charge.

DVD available from The Criterion Collection   :