Jacques Tati(1907-1982)
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
The comic genius Jacques Tati was born Taticheff, descended from a
noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a
general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the
Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a
well-to-do picture framer who conducted his business in the fashionable
Rue de Castellane and had taken a Dutch-Italian woman, Marcelle Claire
van Hoof, as his wife. To Emmanuel's lasting dismay, Jacques had no
intention of following in the family trade of framing and restoration.
Instead, he went on to pursue an education (specialising in arts and
engineering) at the military academy of Lycée de Saint Germain-en-laye.
After graduating, his main preoccupation became sports. He already
boxed and played tennis and was introduced to rugby during a sojourn in
London. Back in Paris, he joined the Racing Club de France (1925-30),
and for some time seriously contemplated a career as a professional
rugby player. However, Jacques also had an uncanny talent for
pantomime, imitating athletes at his school to the amusement of
classmates and teachers. By the time he had reached the age of 24,
encouraged by his success as an entertainer in the annual revue of the
Racing Club, he suddenly decided to combine his two passions and,
without further ado, entered the world of show business.
From 1931, Jacques toured the Parisian music halls, theatres and
circuses with his impersonations, acrobatics, drunk waiter and comic
tennis routines (the latter would be famously re-enacted by his alter
ego, Monsieur Hulot). He had by this time changed his name to 'Tati' in
order to accommodate theatre bills.The French magazine "Le Jour" was
among the first to acknowledge his growing popularity, describing
Jacques as "a clown of great talent". At the same time, he made his
screen debut in a series of short featurettes, tailored to show off his
practised gags, notably
Oscar, champion de tennis (1932)
and Watch Your Left (1936)
("Watch your left", a very funny boxing sketch). The Second World War,
military service and inherent strictures resulting from the German
occupation put a temporary halt to his career. Then, in 1946, through a
friend, the writer-director
Claude Autant-Lara, Jacques obtained
a small role in the whimsical fantasy
Sylvie et le fantôme (1946),
about a girl (Odette Joyeux) in love with
a ghost (Tati).
The small township of Sainte-Sévère, where Tati had taken refuge during
the occupation, served as inspiration for his first film, initially
conceived as a one-reeler entitled "L'Ecole des facteurs" (School for
Postmen). Unable to find widespread distribution, Tati decided to
re-shoot the bucolic comedy --with himself in the central role -- as a
feature film, using the villagers as extras and filming everything on
location. And thus,
Jour de Fête (1949) and Francois the
village postman came into being. However, the film was soon
overshadowed by his next enterprise and a critic of the satirical
publication Le Canard Enchainé even proposed to fight a duel with
anyone who would prefer "Jour de Fete" to
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)!
With "Holiday", Tati reinvented the visual comedy of the silent era in
a style not dissimilar to that of
Max Linder. There is hardly any
dialogue, except for background chatter, but natural and human noises
are enhanced whenever required for the desired comic effect. The film
is almost plotless, essentially comprised of a series of vignettes (to
the recurring musical motif of
Alain Romans's breezy 1952 composition
"Quel temps fait-il à Paris?") at a seaside resort frequented by
assorted holiday makers. All are stereotypical of their respective
social class, as are the villagers themselves. Their inability to
escape social conditioning and the stress they endure in the process of
'enjoying themselves' are observed with a keen satirical eye through
their interaction with each other. At the centre is the ever-present
character of the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, who arrives in a rickety 1924
Amilcar. Tall and reedy, clad in a poplin coat, wearing a crumpled hat,
striped socks, trousers which are patently too short, rolled umbrella,
a pipe firmly clenched between his teeth and perambulating with an odd
stiff-legged gait, Hulot cuts an ungainly, yet hilarious figure.
Well-meaning though he is, he invariably leaves disaster in his wake
and departs the scene quickly as things go wrong, letting others sort
out the mess. "Holiday" is more than just a brilliant collection of
sight gags, but also an ironic observation of the foibles of human
nature. Tati acknowledged the influence of both
Buster Keaton and
W.C. Fields in the creation of Hulot. Very
much like Keaton or Charles Chaplin, he
was also a consummate perfectionist who micro-managed each scene with
unerring precision. Comedy for Tati was a serious business.
In Tati's subsequent ventures, Hulot became relegated from being the
focus of the story to merely subordinate to its concept. As just one of
many characters, Hulot weaves in and out of
My Uncle (1958) and
Playtime (1967), his simple,
old-fashioned world contrasted sharply against the coldness of
mechanisation, obsessive consumerism and the growing uniformity of
houses and cities. "Playtime", shot in 70mm, took six years to make and
required the creation of a massive glass and concrete high-rise set
with myriad corridors and cubicles (dubbed 'Tativille' and built at a
cost of $800,000) which raised the picture's total budget to $3 million
and left Tati bankrupt. His next project,
Trafic (1971), a satire of modern man's
love of cars, failed to recoup these losses. Creditors impounded Tati's
films, which were not re-released until 1977, when a canny Parisian
distributor expunged his outstanding debts. Throughout his career, Tati
remained obdurately committed to his artistic integrity and to his
independence as a film maker. He was one of few directors who
consistently employed non-professional actors. He turned down offers
from Hollywood for a 15-minute series of television comedies, following
the success of "Mon Oncle". He summed it all up by declaring "I could
have satisfied the producers of the world by making a whole series of
little Hulot films, and I would have made a lot of money. But I would
not have been able to do what I like - work freely". (NY Times,
November 6, 1982)
noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a
general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the
Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a
well-to-do picture framer who conducted his business in the fashionable
Rue de Castellane and had taken a Dutch-Italian woman, Marcelle Claire
van Hoof, as his wife. To Emmanuel's lasting dismay, Jacques had no
intention of following in the family trade of framing and restoration.
Instead, he went on to pursue an education (specialising in arts and
engineering) at the military academy of Lycée de Saint Germain-en-laye.
After graduating, his main preoccupation became sports. He already
boxed and played tennis and was introduced to rugby during a sojourn in
London. Back in Paris, he joined the Racing Club de France (1925-30),
and for some time seriously contemplated a career as a professional
rugby player. However, Jacques also had an uncanny talent for
pantomime, imitating athletes at his school to the amusement of
classmates and teachers. By the time he had reached the age of 24,
encouraged by his success as an entertainer in the annual revue of the
Racing Club, he suddenly decided to combine his two passions and,
without further ado, entered the world of show business.
From 1931, Jacques toured the Parisian music halls, theatres and
circuses with his impersonations, acrobatics, drunk waiter and comic
tennis routines (the latter would be famously re-enacted by his alter
ego, Monsieur Hulot). He had by this time changed his name to 'Tati' in
order to accommodate theatre bills.The French magazine "Le Jour" was
among the first to acknowledge his growing popularity, describing
Jacques as "a clown of great talent". At the same time, he made his
screen debut in a series of short featurettes, tailored to show off his
practised gags, notably
Oscar, champion de tennis (1932)
and Watch Your Left (1936)
("Watch your left", a very funny boxing sketch). The Second World War,
military service and inherent strictures resulting from the German
occupation put a temporary halt to his career. Then, in 1946, through a
friend, the writer-director
Claude Autant-Lara, Jacques obtained
a small role in the whimsical fantasy
Sylvie et le fantôme (1946),
about a girl (Odette Joyeux) in love with
a ghost (Tati).
The small township of Sainte-Sévère, where Tati had taken refuge during
the occupation, served as inspiration for his first film, initially
conceived as a one-reeler entitled "L'Ecole des facteurs" (School for
Postmen). Unable to find widespread distribution, Tati decided to
re-shoot the bucolic comedy --with himself in the central role -- as a
feature film, using the villagers as extras and filming everything on
location. And thus,
Jour de Fête (1949) and Francois the
village postman came into being. However, the film was soon
overshadowed by his next enterprise and a critic of the satirical
publication Le Canard Enchainé even proposed to fight a duel with
anyone who would prefer "Jour de Fete" to
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)!
With "Holiday", Tati reinvented the visual comedy of the silent era in
a style not dissimilar to that of
Max Linder. There is hardly any
dialogue, except for background chatter, but natural and human noises
are enhanced whenever required for the desired comic effect. The film
is almost plotless, essentially comprised of a series of vignettes (to
the recurring musical motif of
Alain Romans's breezy 1952 composition
"Quel temps fait-il à Paris?") at a seaside resort frequented by
assorted holiday makers. All are stereotypical of their respective
social class, as are the villagers themselves. Their inability to
escape social conditioning and the stress they endure in the process of
'enjoying themselves' are observed with a keen satirical eye through
their interaction with each other. At the centre is the ever-present
character of the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, who arrives in a rickety 1924
Amilcar. Tall and reedy, clad in a poplin coat, wearing a crumpled hat,
striped socks, trousers which are patently too short, rolled umbrella,
a pipe firmly clenched between his teeth and perambulating with an odd
stiff-legged gait, Hulot cuts an ungainly, yet hilarious figure.
Well-meaning though he is, he invariably leaves disaster in his wake
and departs the scene quickly as things go wrong, letting others sort
out the mess. "Holiday" is more than just a brilliant collection of
sight gags, but also an ironic observation of the foibles of human
nature. Tati acknowledged the influence of both
Buster Keaton and
W.C. Fields in the creation of Hulot. Very
much like Keaton or Charles Chaplin, he
was also a consummate perfectionist who micro-managed each scene with
unerring precision. Comedy for Tati was a serious business.
In Tati's subsequent ventures, Hulot became relegated from being the
focus of the story to merely subordinate to its concept. As just one of
many characters, Hulot weaves in and out of
My Uncle (1958) and
Playtime (1967), his simple,
old-fashioned world contrasted sharply against the coldness of
mechanisation, obsessive consumerism and the growing uniformity of
houses and cities. "Playtime", shot in 70mm, took six years to make and
required the creation of a massive glass and concrete high-rise set
with myriad corridors and cubicles (dubbed 'Tativille' and built at a
cost of $800,000) which raised the picture's total budget to $3 million
and left Tati bankrupt. His next project,
Trafic (1971), a satire of modern man's
love of cars, failed to recoup these losses. Creditors impounded Tati's
films, which were not re-released until 1977, when a canny Parisian
distributor expunged his outstanding debts. Throughout his career, Tati
remained obdurately committed to his artistic integrity and to his
independence as a film maker. He was one of few directors who
consistently employed non-professional actors. He turned down offers
from Hollywood for a 15-minute series of television comedies, following
the success of "Mon Oncle". He summed it all up by declaring "I could
have satisfied the producers of the world by making a whole series of
little Hulot films, and I would have made a lot of money. But I would
not have been able to do what I like - work freely". (NY Times,
November 6, 1982)