Play Time (1967, Jacques Tati)
Wow, this is one of my favorite movies now. I was right about watching it in the theater (on film)… really helped see everything properly. More important, possibly, was seeing it for a second time,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Parade (1973, Jacques Tati)
A tumbling act vaults in different styles according to their costumes (hockey players, military parade). Magicians one-up each other. The audience participates. We go backstage and into the lobby. Tati...
View ArticleClik here to view.
M. Hulot’s Holiday (1953, Jacques Tati)
I saw this ages ago and didn’t get it. Now that I’ve enjoyed Mon Oncle and seen Playtime a few times, I wasn’t thrown by Tati’s Buster Keatonesque style – series of gags setting up the next series of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jour de Fete (1949, Jacques Tati)
It’s hard for me to write about Jacques Tati movies, since mostly what I do is recount a movie’s story and actors I’ve seen before, and Tati films have almost no story and no actors I’ve seen before....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Illusionist (2010, Sylvain Chomet)
Only two people to mention here: Chomet, creator of Triplets of Belleville, and Jacques Tati, who wrote the partly autobiographical script. Having just watched a couple of Tati movies and gotten a feel...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Auteur Shorts, Summer 2014
Berenice (1954, Eric Rohmer) An Edgar Allen Poe story about a talky, sickly shut-in who stares at everyday objects all day is an odd choice for your first film. The guy (Rohmer himself!) lives with an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati)
First time rewatching this since 2003. A warmup for Playtime, toying with modern technology and living/working spaces ill-suited for the decidedly unmodern Mr. Hulot. At his sister’s house, sound is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trafic (1971, Jacques Tati)
Very promising, opening titles over an auto assembly line, “with the participation of Bert Haanstra,” the factory work bringing to mind his great short Glas. Alas, Tati fell out with Haanstra (and his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Renoir, Etaix, Tati
A Day in the Country (1936, Jean Renoir) Set in 1860, a frivolous comedy that becomes a serious romantic drama, all in forty minutes. Watching this now because I just saw a remake in episode five of La...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Sparks Brothers (2021, Edgar Wright)
Edgar overusing “funny” stock footage, and it’s all people telling the band’s story chronologically with the music in background. Standard rock doc format, but I knew very little of their background...
View Article
