Jacques Tati/Play Time

they're like Anthony Newley songs or something

I think it's true that Tati the actor, Tati as Hulot, is maybe not quite as Chaplinesque as he thinks he is - he doesn't have the same physical gifts - and for me at least there also lurks something a little sinister back there. I could totally believe stories about him bring a monster to his wife or whatever, if those stories existed. he's a man who feels he doesn't fit in the world.

I am REALLY looking forward to this new animated movie, the Illusionist, from the creator of Triplettes of Belleville. it's based on a script that Tati never filmed!

The Illusionist is out now, in the UK at least. I can see why it was never filmed, it's very melancholy and all the jokes are just a bit sad. Apparently it was a very personal story for him relating to a daughter he never knew. I mean it's great, but he let his curmudgeonly side show a bit too much.

I could totally believe stories about him bring a monster to his wife or whatever, if those stories existed.

this is an insane sentence!

they're like Anthony Newley songs or something

What kind of fool are you?

I do find Playtime more transfixing and utterly absorbing than roll-on-the-floor funny

Pretty much my thought.

What kind of fool are you?

Not fool enough to stand that kind of whimsy.

I don't see the similarity btwn Mon Oncle and "The Candy Man"

i find 'playtime' very funny, though not exactly in the way that most other movies are funny. it probably helps that i think chaplin is pretty much the pinnacle of all comedy ever.

i've never found anything remotely sinister about hulot -- the thought is a little bizarre.

Not Hulot - Tati as Hulot.

Maybe sinister's the wrong word - profound unhappiness. Coupled with monomania.

Nope, I see sinister subtexts too -- like Bill Cosby's Dr. Huxtable.

profound unhappiness.

http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/68/DeannaTroi.jpg

Who is that??

Star Trek Next Gen shrink.

I think. I'm strictly TOS myself.

I could easily be projecting other comics' famed private misanthropy onto Tati. For the record I have no idea about his actual self or life. But his innocence, as Hulot, seems less somehow less innocent than Chaplin's as The Tramp. It's more polemical. It'd innocence as intransigence against an ultra-sexualised society that shows every sign of worsening etc. I get the impression that he really passionately hates the sort of people who are the boy's parents in Mon Oncle, and hates the society that produced them, and feels they are so ridiculous as to be beyond hope.

Re: the Illusionist eek it's too bad to hear that you can see "why it was never made".. Still hoping for good things. But you know that Tati was completely bankrupted by Playtime. That may have played a bigger part. He hadn't been blessed with generous investors in many years.

Oh I definitely see that, I don't disagree. I was actually kind of drunk when I posted that @_@.

Re: the Illusionist eek it's too bad to hear that you can see "why it was never made".. Still hoping for good things.

Oh yeah it's great, maybe not as great as Belleville Rendezvous but still pretty amazing. It just wouldn't have been a commercial success if Tati had made it is what I meant, it's too bitter and downbeat.

Liked The Illusionist (Christmas in US limited release). As you can see 'Tatischeff' has the look, though only a few incidences of Hulotesque slapstick:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/images/stills-fullsize/theillusionist-8.jpg

just NY/LA to start.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/

Looks nice!

The 'lighting' of the scenes throughout is amazing.

Interesting coincidence re: this bump. Just was reading about how they'll be playing a 70mm print of this soon, and realized that this was that Jacques Tati movie I'd heard about and wanted to see but didn't remember the name of. Tickets will probably be expensive so it's probably not going to happen, but I'll be sure to take out the DVD at least.

really, it's SO much more impressive in a theatre

I should have mentioned by "this" I meant Playtime. Nevertheless, tickets to it are much less expensive than I thought. It's also playing from Dec. 23rd on, which is good because as a non-Christian Christmas is one of the great default movie-going days of the year anyways. And yeah, 70mm print, sweet.

critical roundup for The Illusionist (2nd half of the page):

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/2684

rly want to see that

Fortuitous thread bump! Just saw Playtime for the first time (70mm print) just some hours ago. It was, good, I suppose.

a 70mm print is also running at reopening of NYC's Amer Mus of the Moving Image (in Astoria) next month.

trying to find London info about this :(

iMdB says it opened in the UK in August. (see Matt #2 above)

They're showing it here Feb. 4. I can't wait!

why Rosenbaum can't write about The Illusionist:

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=24181

good lord I can't make it through that entire letter the grandson sent to ebert complaining about everything.

thing runs like 40 pages. "i have grievances and i wish to tell you about them in the form of this book which has so far failed to find a publisher." and i'm sorry, but ffs, this shit happened nearly 70 years ago. it's possible that the wound still stings, but grandson's obsession w/ this ancient wrong done to his mother, while understandable, doesn't interest me all that much.

exactly, no one needs to care outside of the family.

so no other Americans have seen this?

we keep putting it off. prolly this weekend...

i find it strange how uncurious/dismissive you guys are about the backstory linked above. maybe you just love this boring pretentious director too much to interface with his monstrous nature

good point u dick

Please, is name-calling necessary :'(

artist ppl like is kind of an asshole, film at 11

So nobody finds it interesting at all? I'm not saying he needs to be raked over the coals, just that it's an interesting story. I don't think anyone on here would claim that the details of Roman Polanski's life aren't worth knowing because, hey, artists are assholes - y'know?

Hey, it's Tati's birthday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_92Cm8gl7Ls&feature=share

With his films, I pretty much watch the backgrounds the whole time.

http://patrixurban.tumblr.com/post/27772525541/iznogoodgood-jacques-tati-marlon-brando-on

both doormen (the one with the buzzers and the one with the detached handle) kill me

the one with the buzzers = one of my favorite moments in the movies, ever.

funny thing is i was expecting a chekhov-style gun-firing what with the amount of time they lingered on the buzzers. but no - only once!

This was such an ordeal for me. Glad I saw it in a theatre--it would have taken me a week to get through it at home.

I would happily watch this film over and over for a week, oh for the spare time to accomplish this project