Playtime (1967)

 Jacques Tati’s ‘Playtime’ is a film that is one of a kind – filled with inaudible conversations, static but bizarre movements in a place where there is no room for creation and individuality. In the 1960s, French president Charles de Gaulle made a vow to develop his country’s economy and reform Paris into a modern city. Knocking down older houses in urban Right Bank districts, developers rebuilt parts of the city and its suburbs and put up modernized blocks of glass and steel in their place. High-rise structures were allowed within Paris for the first time, and their anonymous façades soured the City of Lights’ historical atmosphere and represented an unsightly contrast to her famous monuments. The city of the future was on its way, and its expansion was modeled according to dull, functional, pointedly Americanized specifications. 

 

During this time, filmmaker Jacques Tati, who had grown up in the earthy quarters of Paris and lived there most of his life, decided to make a film about the ache of losing his old Paris to a more contemporary cityscape. To accomplish this, Tati conceived a most ingenious and maniacal idea: he would build a city of his own design, on which he could shoot freely and have absolute control. The use of space which is physically created at Saint – Maurice; has changed viewers perception of purpose with which we as a society conform to. His use of crowds and light comedy have never been used in cinematography like this before.

 

The long and thoughtful shots are not detailed – the director did not want to show a particular situation, but rather see the big picture, where the actual viewer has the choices what to focus on. This technique enables an endless variation of moments, especially when looking at the crowds within the frame. Each actor seems to have an assigned movement or conversation within a blank and abstract space, thus making us focus mostly on the surroundings rather than something in particular. The dialogue has been post-synchronized and its volume turned down to direct our attention to forms of behaviour and visual gags in the impractical spaces he’s chosen to depict. Fore, middle, and backgrounds are all in crisp focus and ready for our eyes to explore, occupied at times by, among a whole population of others

 

I believe that the main point of this art-house film, is to explore the ideas of conformity and the repetition of our everyday lives in a comical way. We as a society have ground rules which we follow without any particular notice. This creates a viscous cycle, where we seem to lose identity but work and create things for others – making the surroundings dull and put simply – lazy. Although this film came out in 1967, I believe that it still represents the current situation within the community perfectly. With time, people have less and less opportunities within their own national countries and we become hung up on structure and stability.

 

Tati explores architecture, transportation, and modern social behaviour from a distance and allows his audience to note how problematic and illogical some modern apparatuses and conveniences may be, while he also approaches his subject with a sense of admiration. Fascinated by a fully realized world of details rich with Tati’s quizzical observations, his eyes and thus our own, everyday life becomes a recreational activity through which everyone is a spectator and participant, but only if we allow ourselves a moment to take notice.