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Reviews
Le dernier milliardaire (1934)
An unknown masterpiece
Rene Clair was arguably the greatest director in the world in the period from 1929 - 1933. "Under The Roofs of Paris", "Le Million". A Nous La Liberte" and "Quatorze Juliet" had been huge hits in France and received acclaim around the world from critics and filmmakers. All of these films are well known and represented in current film histories. What is so surprising is that his next film "Le Dernier Millionarde" (The Last Billionaire) is both almost completely unknown and unappreciated. The story seems in retrospect to have been a prescient warning of the dangers of Nazism, combining an absurd political plot with some brilliant comedic acting. The editing is extremely advanced for 1934, and pioneers the use of some techniques later used in Citizen Kane (ie the fake newsreel). See it if you can find it.