A great classic

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since this movie seemed to have a strong reputation (it is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I had heard of René Clair before but it was the first movie I saw directed by this guy. Well, I have to admit that I was so impressed by the damned thing. I have noticed that this movie has been heralded as a great satirical comedy but, in my opinion, it is also a fascinating political manifesto displaying so many Anarchist concepts and ideas. Indeed, it was against so many things such as Capitalism, discipline, hierarchy, working, productivity, money, wealth,… pretty much following the Anarchist dogma which was so neat. What was even more brilliant was that the fact it was tackled in such a light manner with some cute little longs along the way. These songs didn’t bother me at all, in the contrary, which was even more remarkable since I’m far from being a huge fan of musicals. Finally, even though it might all seem frivolous and superficial, I thought it was narratively actually quite strong. For example, at some point, Emile became head over heels in love with some random girl he met. Well, in most movies, at the end, he would get the girl but, here, she actually rebuffed him. It was really unexpected but it completely made sense because , well, she didn’t know him at all and it was so striking because it went against the most basic narrative conventions. Finally, at the end, the two main characters had basically nothing, no money, no job, no women, no possessions whatsoever,… They only had each other and, yet, they had both never been happier which was just so awesome and inspiring. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

P.S: I forgot to mention that this movie was obviously a huge inspiration for Charles Chaplin when he made 'Modern Times', another massive classic. It didn't bother René Clair at all since he was a huge fan of Chaplin's work which makes this guy and this movie even more awesome than they already were.