Playtime (DVD)

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In the short film "Cours du Soir" (1967), Jacques Tati plays a mime instructor who emphasizes to his students the importance of observing people closely. "Playtime" (1967) is the advanced version of this course put into action. Tati scrutinizes every member of his sprawling cast with an eye for detail that only years of trained observation can produce. The looks, movements and mannerisms of every single person who passes in front of his camera are recorded in vivid detail, and then coordinated into a precise, almost mathematical pattern that resembles dance as much as it does a narrative film.

In the hands of a less humanistic director, such an approach might produce a cold or clinical movie, but Tati likes, or at least is interested in, every character (and actor) who appears in his film. An obnoxious businessman could easily be played as the stereotypical "ugly American," but under Tati´s guidance, his ostentatiousness plays more like bonhomie. When he flings around his money, even offering to buy the nightclub he is in, it´s because he wants to have a good time and wants other people to enjoy it along with him. Tati finds the good in all of his characters. There is not a hint of smugness or condescension to be found in this movie, only the kind of playfulness that the title promises.

"Playtime" was Tati´s greatest project or, depending upon your perspective, his greatest folly. He spent more than three years in production, building an entire city as his set (built in Joinville, it soon became known as Tati-ville) and investing much of his personal fortune in the project. Following the critical and popular success of his two previous Mr. Hulot films, "Mr. Hulot´s Holiday" (1953) and "Mon oncle" (1958), a third Hulot film seemed like a sure bet. Unfortunately, the only thing certain in the film business is that nobody knows what will happen next. "Playtime" was a financial disaster, due in part to the interference of American distributors and for other reasons less clear. Perhaps the relatively subdued presence of the character of Hulot in the film, who takes a backseat to the ensemble cast, contributed to the failure. Perhaps it was just a case of bad timing. Whatever the reasons, Tati wound up losing his family home and, ultimately, even the rights to his own films.

The box office failure certainly has nothing to do with the quality of the film itself. As an audiovisual spectacle, "Playtime" is rivaled only by "2001: A Space Odyssey" (I have always thought of the two films together, and was pleasantly surprised when critic Jonathan Rosenbaum made the same comparison in the liner notes to this DVD.) I first saw "Playtime" on a restored 70mm print, and I count it as the single most memorable movie-going experience of my life. The sheer amount of activity in every frame of this film is so overwhelming that no single viewing can possibly suffice to absorb it all. Action occurs on multiple planes and in multiple directions, and Tati´s long takes and wide shots allow them to unfold in real time, inviting the viewer to choose what he or she wants to watch.

Take the extraordinary scene in which Tati shows the living rooms of four separate apartments (effectively creating a four-way split-screen), all filmed from the outside. Most viewers will focus on the room which Hulot enters with his old war friend, but watch closely again and you´ll notice how the body language of the woman who lives next door is oddly coordinated with the "main" action. Or how about the opening scene at Orly airport which first focuses on a seated couple conversing in mid-ground, but soon expands to follow a parade of different passersby: a confused janitor, a stewardess who walks with robotic precision and turns at sharp ninety degree angles, and so on. Pick a character, any character, and follow him or her; you won´t be making the wrong choice; they´re all important. It was all part of Tati´s plan to "democratize" his film, taking the focus away from any single character and giving everyone their own degree of significance in the film. He particularly wanted to take the focus off his signature character, Monsieur Hulot, and let some of his other actors shine. He even sprinkles a series of fake Hulots throughout the film to further undermine his character´s central role.

As you might guess, the gossamer plot hardly matters. Hulot comes to see a man about a job but has difficulty meeting with him. He wanders into the city where the action switches to follow a group of American women, including Barbara (Barbara Dennek) the closest thing the film has to a protagonist outside of Hulot, have arrived on vacation. Sometimes we follow the women; sometimes Hulot on his misadventures. Most of the time, we´re watching the city itself, presented here as a sleek, ultra-modern, condensed version of Paris. It´s a city made all of transparent glass, and operated by strange machinery that is both of its time and oddly futuristic. An early scene takes place at a trade show where vendors display their wares, including a vacuum cleaner with its own headlights and a door made of material that dampens all sound ("Slam Your Doors in Golden Silence!") Occasionally, Paris landmarks peek through the slick modernity, such as the Eiffel Tower which makes an unlikely appearance as a reflection in a glass doorway.

The entire film is a near-flawless symphony, but it reaches its pinnacle in the extended Royal Garden sequence at the end. If you can call a forty-minute plus sequence a "set-piece," it is the greatest set-piece in film history. It´s opening night at a ritzy nightclub, but the kinks have yet to be ironed out, and the staff is ill-prepared to handle the crowd. Bad paint jobs, loose floor tiles, and collapsing support beams produce an endless series of complications. In this single space, Tati is somehow able to create dozens of distinct and memorable characters, including the waiters, the manager, the bouncer, the carpenter, the band members, several diners, a local drunk, and Hulot himself.