Directed by:
Jacques TatiScreenplay:
Jacques TatiComposer:
Francis LemarqueCast:
Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Rita Maiden, Yves Barsacq, Reinhard Kolldehoff, Billy Kearns, Alice Field, Laure Paillette, Gilbert Reeb, Michel Francini (more)Plots(1)
Marking the third appearance of Tati's Mr. Magoo-like character, Mr. Hulot, Playtime takes as its subject modern technology and its sometimes disastrous and always hilarious effects on the people living within it. As in most Tati films, a minimal plot (the parallel paths of Hulot and a group of American tourists), is held together by a seamless ballet of visual, aural, and conceptual gags. (Madman Entertainment)
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Reviews (2)
Jacques Tati's films are so specific that you feel like you are watching someone who understood the world so uniquely that either you tune into his wavelength or not. In this case, it is a film that is and is not a grotesque, is and is not a comedy. Such portrayal of society is truly not far from reality, which sometimes gives quite a chill.
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A film where everything happens very quickly and chaotically, but at the same time nothing happens – just like in the modern, impersonal times it satirically describes. That the work with sound perspective is amazing (as it is) and that every formal choice matches to perfection Tati's symbolic intentions is not enough to make the film a mega-fun and inspiring classic. There are some really great ideas, and the restaurant scene is certainly good, but I can't shake the feeling that it's disproportionately drawn out, and that if I were to film me and my friends' nightlife, the mise-en-scène would have offered far greater and more numerous gems to laugh at, in every sense…
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