Playtime (1967)

Monsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.

Director:

Jacques Tati

Writers:

Jacques Tati (original screenplay), Jacques Lagrange (collaboration)

Stars:

Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Rita Maiden

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Barbara Dennek	...	Barbara, Young Tourist
Jacques Tati	...	Monsieur Hulot
Rita Maiden	...	Mr. Schultz's Companion (as Rita Maïden)
France Rumilly	...	Woman Selling Eyeglasses
France Delahalle	...	Shopper in Department Store
Valérie Camille	...	Mr. Lacs's Secretary
Erika Dentzler	...	Mme. Giffard
Nicole Ray	...	Singer
Yvette Ducreux	...	Hat Check Girl
Nathalie Jem
Jacqueline Lecomte	...	Young Tourist's Friend
Oliva Poli
Alice Field
Sophie Wennek
Evy Cavallaro

Storyline

Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but he gets lost in the maze of modern architecture which is filled with the latest technical gadgets. Caught in the tourist invasion, Hulot roams around Paris with a group of American tourists, causing chaos in his usual manner.

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Plot Keywords:

tourist | maze | restaurant | architecture | complex | 

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Taglines:

A wonderful playtime where you will discover the funny side of life's every moment.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France Italy

Language:

French English German

Release Date:

27 June 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Play Time

Filming Locations:

Joinville, Haute-Marne, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Specta Films,Jolly Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

155 min (with intermission and exit music) 124 min (2002 restored)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm prints) 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) DTS 70 mm (70 mm prints) (restored version) Mono (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For the restaurant sequence, Jacques Tati had to work out each part and direct each character separately. It took him seven weeks to shoot it. First he'd set up all the different movements in the background, then he'd set up each action in the foreground, looking through the lens while composing each shot so he could see everything at once. He had to shoot it all in sequence.

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Goofs

The escalator handrails aren't moving in the fist department store scene. You can see the actors skimming their hands along, pretending it's moving when you can see by reflections of its surface, it is indeed not.

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Crazy Credits

The title isn't shown until the end of the opening credits. Additionally, there are no end credits. The final shot simply fades out and there is about a minute of exit music.

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Connections

Featured in Adieu De Gaulle adieu (2009)

User Reviews

It's Tati's World. We're just living in it.

I comment 2 years after seeing "Playtime" at the Art Institute of Chicago, an event in which the film was presented in its original 70mm format for the first time since its debut. Over the years it had been cropped and recropped for standard prints and video leaving little of the original magic, which is the sheer SCOPE of this visual marvel.

Absolutely amazing sells "Play" short. The picture was so clear and the sequences so thrilling that I dare say this is Tati's Masterpiece. Apparently, he created an entire 1/5th scale city outside Paris and shot over the course of three years to get this honey in the can, and man-o-man, does it show.

This is the kind of film that reminds a viewer just how standardized modern cinematic narrative has become. Tati exists in an alternate plane of recorded consciousness; I walked out of "Play" as if hallucinating, having fully entered his perspective and adopted his suggestions as my own.

This is a film in balance with the nature of cinema itself; if Frank Lloyd Wright was a director, Tati would be his disciple: Tati's cinematic interpretations are in natural proportion to the distinctive elements of film. Visual dominance, sound hyperbarically in support of the image rhythm, help me I'm hallucinating again-thanks Jaques...

Don't miss this one, but don't see it in any other format than a special 70mm screening. Somebody put a screening together!!!