460. PLAYTIME (1967)

Running Time: 123 minutes
Directed By: Jacques Tati
Written By: Jacques Legrange, Jacques Tati, Art Buchwald
Main Cast: Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Jacqueline Lecomte, Valerie Camille, France Rumilly
Click here to view the trailer

TATI HAT TRICK: PART THREE OF THREE

Unfortunately, I have to report that my third attempt at a Tati film/a Hulot film didn't work out any better than my first two attempts. I still found this third try - Playtime - hard to swallow and while I'll admit it's probably the best looking comedy I've ever seen, it wasn't enough to win me over.

The film, like Mon Oncle, takes another look at the fascination of modernism postwar and a very gray, French world. The film is broken down into several pieces, with everything starting out in an office building, where Hulot goes for a meeting, of which I think we never learn the origin of. Hulot stumbles and staggers around the offices, trying to meet his party but something keeps separating them. Keep your eyes open during this segment, as you'll notice an obvious fascination of Tati's with geometry - or is he just trying to say that in the future, everything will have a distinct shape, a square, a rectangle of a future? The second half of the film is almost entirely Hulot free and takes place almost entirely in a restaurant, during the opening night of a upscale new eatery. I was fully willing to give this film decent enough marks until the restaurant scene began and then seemingly never ended. I kept wondering what was the point of all this and despite a hilarious gag (a glass door is shattered, yet a doorman - to give the illusion that the door is still there - continues to move the doorknob back and forth to entering and exiting patrons) it was almost totally pointless.

I started to see bits & pieces of some messages coming through, but I think the main problem is that I'm going into these thinking I'll see a comedy and not really preparing to receive messages and theories on the bleak future of France. Perhaps, if I hadn't gone in expecting strict comedy, I'd have been more receptive and been more able to pick out little jabs at postwar society. What you have here are three movies that I found very difficult to sit through (well, Mr. Hulot's Holiday wasn't that bad), yet three movies that I doubt I'll soon forget. I guess it's saying something that I can at least admit that the films are very memorable, despite boring me to tears. If there was a little more plot structured around the gags (which are kept to a minimum here, much like in Mon Oncle) and the messages, I think these would've won me over better, but as it is, I'm glad they're done. On a side note, has anyone ever gone through these films and picked out the things that Tati predicted right? The vacuum cleaner that runs itself and the gadgets that spring to life simply by waving your hand in front of them actually came true and it's kind of amazing that Tati had the foresight (or maybe just the luck) to envision such gizmos that wouldn't actually be invented for decades.

RATING: 4/10  Same rating, although I'd probably go closer to '5' for Mon Oncle in hindsight. I was hard pressed to find anybody who had anything negative to say about these movies, meaning I'm in a minority here. Oh well...won't be the last time.

MOVIES WATCHED: 909
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 92

February 8, 2015  5:13pm