Time for Playtime

By chicago_chris in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 26, 2004 6:11PM

This Friday at the Music Box marks the long awaited (by Chicagoist, anyway) rerelease of Jacques Tati's classic Playtime (and, for better or worse, influence on Steven Spielberg's The Terminal). Like Francis Ford Coppola with his similarly neglected One From The Heart, Tati went all crazy Orson Welles on this one, demanding that an entire city be constructed on a soundstage. And again like Coppola, constructing that city on a back-lot effectively bankrupted him. But what a way to go out!

In Tati's films, unlike those of Woody Allen, the comedy is never strictly about the writer-director-star. Tati, instead, democratically spreads the laughs around and lets many of his characters shine. His constant "protagonist," the perpetually bumbling and bemused Mr. Hulot, just wanders through all the lovely sight (and sound) gags. More than anything, Tati was a choreographer of comedy and his films feel like poetic ballets of pratfalls.

Originally shot in the huge 70 mm format, every home video or DVD of Playtime (even the no-frills Criterion edition, who should really know better) has always chopped off part of the aspect ratio. And while Chicagoist can go on plenty of nonsensical rants about the virtues of widescreen and the need to show and project films in their original format (did you hear that, AMC?), these things are truly essentially with Tati's work. He fills the frame with little bits of physical comedy, often stuffing them away in the corners of the screen, miles away from the central action. Who knows what we've been missing all these years? Find out starting tomorrow. Mr. Hulot's Holiday is probably a funnier and more accessible film, but Tati never made a more stunning or complete statement than Playtime.

Read an essay on Playtime by the great Kent Jones.