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In the second edition of Canon Of Film, we take a look a Jacques Tati‘s ‘Playtime’. For the genesis of Canon Of Film, you can click here.

“Playtime” (1967)

Director: Jacques Tati

Screenplay: Jacques Lagrange and Jacques Tati; with addition English dialogue by Art Buchwald

Jacques Tati’s ‘Playtime‘ is clearly a masterpiece, but I think almost nobody can actually master it. According to film scholar Noel Berch, ‘Playtime‘, doesn’t have to just be seen multiple times, but has to be seen from several different points in the theater itself. The movie is all action. Not the way we normally think of action, but “action” in terms of filling up the screen. To watch one thing – usually in the foreground – means you’re missing many things happening in the background, and vice-versa.

The most expensive French film made at the time, the film’s box office failure would eventually bankrupt Tati.

With only six feature films to his name, four of which featured his iconic onscreen alter ego, the cinema of Jacques Tati remains an island of unique delight despite his influence on decades of filmmakers since and comparative efforts of peers from his own period (considering Marguerite Duras’ critique, now widely accepted, concerning the taken-for-granted stylistic likeness between Tati and Robert Bresson, a director whose subject matters were a bit less pleasant or comical). Without Tati and his bumbling character Monsieur Hulot, sputtering about memorably in a series of some of the most well-crafted moments of ingenious, highly organized chaos ever put to celluloid, we’d be without latter day influences, like Roy Andersson, Otar Iosseliani, several Peter Sellers characters, and even Rowan Atkinson’s similarly crafted Mr. Bean.

At the time, Tati’s obvious influences date back to the silent era, where Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin crafted the...

The first entry into my "Best Movies" section was Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (read my essay here) and after rights to the film were finally decided I speculated as to whether or not Criterion will finally get their hands on the absolute classics. The answer is a resounding Yes as the Blu-ray release of the film has just been announced for October 21 with the following features: New 4K digital restoration by the Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray New visual essay by : : kogonada New interview with filmmaker Lina Wertmuller, who worked as assistant director on the film Scholar David Forgacs discusses the period in Italy's history when the film was made New interview with Italian film journalist Antonello Sarno about the outlandish fashions seen in the film Audio interview with actor Marcello Mastroianni from the early 1960s, conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann Felliniana,...