Just Watched - Playtime

Playtime directed by and starring Jacques Tati

on IMDB
review by Ebert
Available Streaming on Netflix

From the Ebert Review

"Jacques Tati's "Playtime," like "2001: A Space Odyssey" or "The Blair Witch Project" or "Russian Ark," is one of a kind, complete in itself, a species already extinct at the moment of its birth."


Paris in Jacques Tati's Playtime is a collection of Modern concrete and glass towers.  The sights we expect are either not included or seen from a distance or seen as reflection.  The most striking view of the Eiffel Tower is a reflection on a glass door of one of the high rises.  


The movie takes place over a day and night in Paris and is populated by an American Tour group, the people of Paris, and Mr. Hulot.  There is virtually no dialog and the dialog that is there has the quality of something barley overheard as you are walking through a room.


The movie is a set of visual and aural vignettes, almost slapstick, but never dumbed down.  There are time where there is so much going on in the scene that you know you missed something.




One of my favorite moments in the film is as one of the American tourists walk pasts a series of travel posters in an Airport, you see that every city across the globe is filled with the same glass and concrete towers.  

An amazing extended sequence takes place in a new restaurant that is not quite ready to be opened.  This sequence alone is worth seeing the whole film.