Ida Z's Film Class Notes: Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati (My favorite)

1)A great comedian of French cinema
2)Like Bresson worked slowly and controlled every detail of his films.
3)He only made six film from late 40's - 70's
4)He plays the character Mr. Hulot in his films.
5)Mr. Hulot is unaware of the chaotic modern world around him.

Playtime (1967)

1)Hulot accompanies a group of American Tourists around Paris
2)Shot almost without close ups or dialogue.
3)"The film communicates the confusion of the age of technology and was shot on 65mm."

Writer Aaron Timms wrote the following in 2017 (the 50th anniversary of Playtime):

"With the benefit of a half-century’s distance, we can see that a lack of action is exactly what makes the film so enduringly powerful. The whole point of Playtime is that it is undramatic, or dramatic at a purely trivial level: the low-stakes drama of someone trying to get the attention of a waiter, or find their way in a city when drunk. The plot, such as it is, can be easily summarized. We find ourselves in a Paris of the near future, filled with sleek office towers and spotless walkways, that’s strangely interstitial — there’s traffic everywhere, everyone seems like they’re passing through, all the shops are either about to close or about to open. Nothing seems settled. Monsieur Hulot, stooped, hatted, pipe-wielding, crane-like, arrives in town for a meeting. A series of accidents, most of them arising from Hulot’s blundering interaction with technology, contrive to divert him from his course; he ends up wandering without aim around the city, where a chance encounter leads him to visit the apartment of an old army pal, attend the opening of a new restaurant, and make friends with a group of American tourists. This doesn’t, of course, capture the richness of Tati’s comic vision; Hulot is never at the center of the action but on its margins, an observer of messy reality as others dance around him. The restaurant opening occupies most of the second half of the film, a frantic hedonism taking hold among the diners as the room’s fancy new gadgets and fittings explode and collapse, the wine keeps flowing, and the band plays on."

Criterion Comments on Jacque Tati Click Here

Jacques Tati has a feeling for comedy because he has a feeling for strangeness. —Jean-Luc Godard

Playtime (1967): Color film clip
Part of the clip we saw Click Here

Scene is when his old army pal takes him up to his modern apartment to have a drink with his family. There is barely any furniture - like the rest of the film everyone is dressed in grey and the furniture is grey or black.

I saw his film Mon Oncle and it is now one of my favorites

Here's a clip - not one of my favorite clips - but this house set is amazing Click Here