Liberty For us (1931)
The Gist:
This is an early talkie by Rene Clair, and unlike many of its contemporary counterparts it has a decidedly minimalist approach to the use of dialogue. Clair was known to speak out against the trend of dialogue running amok in early talkie pictures, and seemed to only use straight laced dialogue when the plot necessitated it. When he could, he preferred to pantomime or to say it in song. As a movie itself, I found it strikingly similar to Modern Times and so when I looked up the film I was unsurprised to find that Chaplin in fact based Modern Times on this film. Even more interesting is the fact that he never got the rights for it and the production company who held the rights to A nous la liberte sued Chaplin. Clair was not part of the suit, and was in fact friends with Chaplin and was honored that he had taken from his film as inspiration. In any case, Clair's film has some interesting commentary on industrialization that serve as an interesting precursor to the more timely Chaplin counterpart.
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