Biography for
Jacques Tati More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

9 October 1907, Le Pecq, Seine-et-Oise (now Yvelines) France

Date of Death

4 November 1982, Paris, France (pneumonia)

Birth Name

Jacques Tatischeff

Height

6' 3" (1.91 m)

Spouse

Micheline Winter

(25 May 1944 - 4 November 1982) (his death) 2 children

Trade Mark

Often leaves hints about the theme of his next feature film. For example, the ending of Mon oncle (1958) paves the way for the technology-minded Play Time (1967), and the balletic representation of cars in Play Time (1967) leads to Trafic (1971). By those standards, the film that would have followed Trafic (1971) would be about space travel or subways.

Used an unique sound design in most of his films: almost all dialogue (except for the most essential lines) is toned down to the background. However, sounds that are crucial in comic gags are amplified.

The leading character in almost all of Tati's movies is the eccentric Mr. Hulot: a conservative, goofy yet good-willing character who seems to be doomed to do everything wrong in the modern world.

Trivia

Was voted the 46th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. With only 9 films to his credit as director, he directed few films than any other director on this list of 50.

One sister, Nathalie, also known as Odette.

Father of Sophie Tatischeff and Pierre Tati.

Son of russian father Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff and dutch mother Marcelle Claire Van Hoof.

Tati's first child Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel was born on the 1st August 1942 after a relationship with Herta Schiel who he had performed professionally with on stage at the Lido de Paris. Today the only living family of Jacques Tati live in England.

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