Playtime (1967)

Jacques Tati’s most painstaking accomplishment blends deft slapstick, endless visual ingenuity and sonic comedy in a stupendous modern satire.

Filmed on a huge, complex set suggestive of the cool, vaguely dehumanising effects of technology and design on modern life, Jacques Tati’s masterpiece offers a low-key account of the bumbling Hulot’s experiences during one day in Paris. An office block of glass and steel becomes a boxed-in prison; a chaotic restaurant provides a memorably liberating opportunity for humanity to express itself.

“Tati’s ruinously ambitious masterpiece starts as a satire of modern architecture and becomes a strangely beatific celebration of the way people move through public spaces. A film about minor embarrassments and fleeting connections between strangers, it begins in alienation and builds to a transcendent vision of communal harmony. Gruelling labour went into each seemingly effortless grace note, as Tati the performer drifts in aimless bewilderment through the world that Tati the director obsessively controls. In Playtime, the movie screen is an idealised public space in which Tati’s people demonstrate the joys of being one-dimensional.” Imogen Sara Smith

“There are plenty of films that offer a critique of technology and modernity. Yet, with his distinctive, meticulous mise en scène, which exploits depth of field in an unparalleled way, and his peculiar ‘downgrading’ of dialogue to a sound like any other, boosting the communicative role of the image, Tati does so in a unique and radical fashion.” Cristina Formenti

“One of the most ambitious films ever made.” Jai Arjun Singh

1967 France
Directed by
Jacques Tati
Produced by
Bernard Maurice
Written by
Jacques Tati, Jacques Lagrange
Featuring
Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Rita Maïden
Running time
152 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Playtime

Critics

Mallory Andrews
Canada
Magdalena Arau
Argentina
Colin Beckett
USA
Marco de Blois
Canada
Richard Brody
USA
David Cairns
UK
Dylan Cave
UK
Ernest Chan Chi-wa
Hong Kong
Robyn Citizen
Canada
Robbie Collin
UK
Richard Combs
UK
Pablo Conde
Argentina
Adrian Danks
Australia
Éric Derobert
France
Juan Manuel Domínguez
Argentina
Mark Duguid
UK
Michael Ewins
UK
Cristina Formenti
Italy
Guillermo Franco
Argentina
Pierre Gabaston
France
Ruy Gardnier
Brazil
Hauvick Habéchian
Lebanon
Kim Haery
South Korea
Malte Hagener
Germany
Nima Hassani Nasab
Iran
Tina Hassannia
Canada
Odie Henderson
USA
Peter Howell
Canada
Brian Hu
USA
Tina Kalinić
Bosnia and Herzegovina
David Katz
UK
Dave Kehr
USA
Ehsan Khoshbakht
UK/Iran
B (Brent) Kite
USA
Eric Kohn
USA
Blagoja Kunovski
North Macedonia
Joachim Lepastier
France
Chloe Lizotte
USA
Chiara Marañón
Spain/UK
Agustín Masaedo
Argentina
Benjamin Mercer
USA
Mehelli Modi
UK
Christian Monggaard
Denmark
Brogan Morris
UK
Angelo Muredda
Canada
Nicolas Raffin
UK
Baradwaj Rangan
India
Pia Reiser
Austria
James Rocarols
UK
Jonathan Rosenbaum
USA
Baptiste Roux
France
Giulio Sangiorgio
Italy
Jai Arjun Singh
India
Caitlin Smith
UK
Imogen Sara Smith
USA
Kyle Stevens
USA
Jesse Trussell
USA
Susan Vahabzadeh
Germany
Carlos Valladares
USA
Jonathan Walley
USA
K. F. Watanabe
USA
Kieron Webb
UK
Elizabeth Weitzman
USA
Catherine Wheatley
UK
Alison Willmore
Asia/USA
Jake Wilson
Australia
René Wolf
Netherlands
Iván Zgaib
Argentina

Directors

Olivier Assayas
France
Ari Aster
USA
Faouzi Bensaïdi
Morocco
Oriol Estrada
Spain/Dominican Republic
James Gray
Natesh Hegde
India
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Mexico
Dea Kulumbegashvili
Georgia
Sebastián Lelio
Chile
Alejo Moguillansky
Argentina
Peter Tscherkassky
Austria
Lulu Wang
USA
Koji Yamamura
Japan
Ezequiel Yanco
Argentina

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