Playtime was French director Jacques Tati's fourth major film, shot between 1964 and 1967 and released in 1967.
| Playtime | |
|---|---|
| File:Playtime.JPG | |
| Directed by | Jacques Tati |
| Written by | Jacques Tati |
| Produced by | Bernard Maurice René Silvera |
| Starring | Jacques Tati |
| Music by | James Campbell |
| Distributed by | Criterion Collection (DVD) |
Release dates |  December 16, 1967 June 27, 1973 |
Running time | 155 min. (original French cut) 126 min. (restored 70 mm version) 108 min. (unrestored/cut version, VHS video) |
| Country | France |
| Languages | French, English, German |
In Playtime, Tati's character M. Hulot and a group of American tourists lose themselves in a futuristic glass-and-steel Paris, where only human nature and a few hints of old Paris emerge to breathe life into the city. New technologies, billed as conveniences, are satirized as merely complicating life, an interference to natural human interaction.
The film is famous for its enormous specially constructed set and background stage, known as Tativille, which cost enormous sums to build and maintain. The set necessitated 100 construction workers to build, and its very own power plant to function. Storms, budget crises, and other disasters stretched the shooting schedule to three years. Budget overruns forced Tati to take out large loans and personal overdrafts to cover ever-increasing production costs.
Playtime depended greatly on visual effects and sight humor, and Tati consequently shot the film on the high-resolution 70mm film format. The film was a critical success when finally released in France, but was limited to those theaters equipped with 70-millimeter stereophonic facilities (Tati did not provide a 35-millimeter version for smaller theaters, which hurt the film's circulation). Playtime proved commercially unsuccessful in France, failing to earn back a significant portion of its production costs. Its relatively poor showing in its home country also resulted in its failure in the United States, where it did not even appear until 1973 (when Tati finally agreed to a 35mm release print at the insistence of U.S. distributors). Debts incurred as a result of the film's commercial failure eventually forced Tati to file for bankruptcy.
Synopsis
Playtime is structured in six sequences linked by two characters who keep bumping into each other in the course of the story: Barbara is a young American tourist visiting Paris and Mr. Hulot has a meeting with somebody important. The sequences are as follows:
- At the airport: a group of American tourists arrive at Orly and discover a futuristic Paris made of cold, impersonal glass and steel buildings.
- The offices: Mr. Hulot goes for an important meeting but he gets lost in a maze of offices and ends up in an exhibition.
- The exhibition of inventions: Mr. Hulot and the American tourists see new inventions including a silent door and a brush with headlights.
- The apartments with glass walls: As night falls, Mr. Hulot meets an old friend who invites him to his ultra-modern flat.
- The Royal Garden: Having escaped his friend, Mr. Hulot finds himself at the inauguration of a new restaurant with the American tourists. However the building work has hardly finished and there are various problems.
- The carrosel of cars: In a car ballet, the tourists' coach returns to the airport.
Cast
- Jacques Tati: Monsieur Hulot
- Barbara Dennek: The young American tourist
- Jacqueline Lecomte: friend of American tourist
- Valérie Camille: Mr Lacs's secretary
- France Rumilly: seller of glasses
- Laure Paillette: first lady at the lamppost
- Colette Proust: second lady at the lamppost
- Erica Dentzler: Mr/Mrs Giffard
- Yvette Ducreux: la demoiselle du vestiaire
- Rita Maiden: Mr Schultz's companion
- Nicole Ray: the singer
- Luce Bonifassy: customer at Royal Garden
- Evy Cavallaro: customer at Royal Garden
- Alice Field: customer at Royal Garden
- Eliane Firmin-Didot: customer at Royal Garden
- Ketty France: customer at Royal Garden
- Nathalie Jam: customer at Royal Garden
- Olivia Poli: customer at Royal Garden
- Sophie Wennek: customer at Royal Garden
- Jack Gauthier: the guide
- Henri Piccoli: the important man
- Léon Doyen: the doorman
- Georges Montant: Mr Giffard, head waiter
- John Abbey: Mr Lacs
- Reinhart Kolldehoff: the German director
- Grégoire Katz: The German salesman
- Marc Monjou: the false Mr Hulot
- Yves Barsacq: Mr Hulot's friend
- Billy Kearns: Mr Schulz
- Michel Francini: Manager of the hotel
External links
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