A Nous La Liberté is, as the title suggests, a pictorial discussion of the problem of liberty, in which the cameraman is aided by the disillusioned airs of Auric. Clair treats the modern world in terms of modern sensibility. A convict evidently lacks liberty. An employee in a Taylorised world is barely distinguishable from a convict. The owner of the factory is too busy to have a minute to himself, and if he buys a smart wife, he merely exists to decorate her dinner table….

These ideas are, in a way, literary. But they are realised by visual means. A Nous La Liberté is not a talkie, but a sound-film, based on a definite rhythm. There is a little talking to help through the necessary plot, not to illustrate the theme. For Clair composes in sound-space. The film is perhaps a trifle long. I felt it might have...