Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with PlayTime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the lovably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a baffling modern world, this time Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, PlayTime is a lasting record of a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion. 4K UHD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES 4K digital restoration, with 3.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the special features Introduction by actor and comedian Terry Jones Three selected-scene commentaries, by film historian Philip Kemp, theater director Jérôme Deschamps, and Jacques Tati expert Stéphane Goudet Like Home, a visual essay by Goudet “Tativille,” a 1967 television program featuring an interview with Tati from the set of PlayTime Beyond “PlayTime,” a short documentary featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the production Interview with script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot Audio interview with Tati from the U.S. debut of PlayTime at the 1972 San Francisco International Film Festival Tati Story, a short film by Goudet on the life and career of Tati “Monsieur Hulot’s Work,” a 1976 television program about Tati’s beloved character Cours du soir (1967), a short film written by and starring Tati Alternate English-language soundtrack PLUS: An essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
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Official Movie Discussion
Talk about PlayTime (The Criterion Collection) 4K with the 3BR community.
Jacques Tati’s 1967 PLAYTIME is an elaborate plotless comedy stressing the inhuman quality of modern architecture. Shot in 70mm on huge sets which were essentially a small city the director appears as his famous character Monsieur Hulot. Tati’s perfectionism and bad luck caused the film to take 3 years to shoot. Tati insisted on only showing the film in 70mm with a complex stereophonic soundtrack. To me it seems like what would happen if Stanley Kubrick and Buster Keaton made a film together...
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