1967 (125’)

France

Director: Jacques Tati

Considered by many to be his masterpiece, Playtime was the most ambitious yet risky and expensive work of Tati’s career. Monsieur Hulot is set on meeting an American official in the hope of securing a job in a high tech version of Paris. Whilst on his way he encounters a group of female American tourists, resulting in all manner of chaos.

FESTIVALS 

• Grand Prix de l’Académie du cinéma, France, 1968
• Moscow FF, Russia, 1969 – Silver Prize
• International FF, Austria, 1969 – Vienna Film Award
• Cinema Oscar, Sweden, 1969
• Kunniakirja Award, Finland, 1969

Though he made only a handful of films, director, writer, and actor Jacques Tati ranks among the most beloved of all cinematic geniuses. With a background in music hall and mime performance, Tati steadily built an ever-more-ambitious movie career that ultimately raised sight-gag comedy to the level of high art. In the surrogate character of the sweet and bumbling, eternally pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Tati invented a charming symbol of humanity lost in a relentlessly modernizing modern age.

Original languages:
French, English

Editor:
Gérard Pollicand

Cinematographer:
Jean Badal, Andreas Winding

Producer:
Bernard Maurice / Specta Films

Contact:
Elisa Romani
E: elisa.romani@tativille.com