Le carillon de la liberté: A Dusty Relic or Hidden Gem?

Is it worth your time?

Look, if you like movies that smell like old film stock and have that specific, stilted energy of early European dramas, you’ll probably find something to love here. If you need pacing that doesn’t drag or characters who actually make sense half the time, stay far away.

This is for the completists. The folks who spend their Sunday afternoons hunting down obscure titles like Erinnerungen einer Nonne just to see how the lighting looks in a low-budget black and white flick. 🎞️

The experience

The film starts with this really intense, dramatic flair that feels like it’s going to be a masterpiece. Then, about twenty minutes in, it just... meanders. There’s a scene involving a church bell that goes on for about an eternity. I’m pretty sure the camera man just went to grab a sandwich and left the lens cap off, or maybe he just really, really loved the way the metal swung.

Madeleine Bréville is doing a lot of heavy lifting here with just her eyes. She spends most of the runtime looking distressed at walls. It’s effective, sure, but it feels like the director told her, "Just stare at that spot until you feel existential dread."

Odd bits and pieces

• The sound design is all over the place. Sometimes the footsteps sound like they’re being recorded in a bathroom.
• Jacques Maury has this one outfit that I am convinced is two sizes too small. Every time he leans over, you can see him wincing.
• The editing feels like it was done with a pair of rusty garden shears. ✂️

It’s not as polished as something like The Last Days of Pompeii, but it has this weird, frantic heart. It’s messy. It’s uneven. It’s definitely not a smooth watch.

There’s a moment toward the end where the lead actor just stops talking for an uncomfortably long time. It’s meant to be a moment of pure, raw grief, but it ends up being kinda funny. You can almost feel the movie trying to convince you that this is the most important silence in cinema history. It isn't.

Still, I kept watching. That's the thing about these old films. You know they're falling apart, but you can't look away because you want to see if they make it to the end without the whole production collapsing. It didn't collapse, but it definitely wobbled a lot.