Jacques Tati/Play Time

I ask in regards to Chaplin because I feel like a kid with any tolerance for silent comedy would at least love Modern Times?

...which is, really, not silent

Well sure, but it's still mostly silent and behaves like a silent film.

but at the same time the passage of time is really clearly defined throughout, like when day turns to night etc

yeah, he is very very concerned with duration, but also with routine. so he's very careful about how the passage of time is depicted in his films. "playtime" is a really interesting instance of compression -- i don't think there's a single obvious ellipse in the film but we get a full day, a night, and the morning after in the space of about two hours.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/5c/c1/54/5cc154cac27aa56c8307ad481160c15d.gif

I was just thinking abt that scene yesterday

what kind of a screen did you watch Play Time on, hon?

(Evan, Modern Times has a music-and-effects track throughout! it hardly ever stops. people say silent when they mean 'dialogueless')

xp it was like a smallish (36"?) widescreen TV, much too small. I spent most of the film daydreaming about how incredible it would be on a giant screen.

(Evan, Modern Times has a music-and-effects track throughout! it hardly ever stops. people say silent when they mean 'dialogueless')

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 26, 2016 4:18 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I guess I've misremembered it! I should revisit.

there are even a few spoken words, and gibberish singing

I did remember the few spoken word bits, but had totally forgotten about the gibberish singing scene.

Still my point was leaning more towards that I think a kid might easily enjoy Modern Times.

i once had an argument with someone who insisted that tati was "basically a silent filmmaker", an assertion he was incredible fond of but which is controverted by the first five seconds of "mr. hulot's holiday."

i'd agree with that, evan

i think i could listen to just the audio tracks of his movies on their own. such amazing sounds.

yeah, they are basically elaborate (and fetching!) pieces of musique concrete.

in fact, there's a collection, "tati sonorama," where the first CD is selections from his films' musical scores, and the second is basically raw chunks of the soundtracks -- music, sound effects, dialogue (such as it is), etc. i prefer the second CD!

you should get it while it's still vaguely affordable, since it's out of print: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00186VRJI/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=&sr=

On last night's Carson rerun on Antenna, one of the main guests was Chevy Chase (this was in '79), and he singled out Tati for extensive praise when asked by Johnny about who made him laugh.

You should repost that on his defend the indefensible thread.

My dad loved Jacques Tati, but my dad was a weird Francophile.

Playtime was incredible. Trafic wasn't quite Playtime, but it was still pretty great

I think my second favorite Tati film after Playtime though is Mon Oncle

Boy, my students, to my surprise, took to Playtime yesterday. It took them a while to let its rhythms work on them, though.

Why surprise?

Long, French, no close-ups, made before May 2019.

and I assume the screen wasn't mammoth, which is a disadvantage

I've got an auditorium, so the projector screen is wall-sized.

oh that's good

saw M Hulot's Holiday for the first(!) time the other night. loved it. maybe my favorite type of movie, just gently whimsical and absurd, a repetitive jazz score which plays off the environs perfectly, a gently sad ending as he pauses and then just decides to get in his car and head off.

i was blown away by the fact that much of the boat/shark gag was filmed in 1978(!!)

Had no idea there were two versions! I guess that scene is a Jaws reference then?

the scene i can't get enough of is when he's painting his boat and the can of paint keeps floating around to the other side of the boat and he never even clocks it's moved but somehow always puts his paintbrush down exactly where it's floated to in order to load up with more paint, just the best