Paris is turning into Tativille starting tomorrow, April 8, until August 2, with the Cinémathèque française’s appropriately large-scale retrospective of the famously ambitious French filmmaking legend’s work, “Jacques Tati, deux temps, trois movements.” Curated by Stéphane Goudet and Macha Makeïeff, the exposition is in honor of the director’s 102nd birthday (“just in time for an homage divorced from obligatory celebrations, which he was not keen on,” the curators tease), and will feature not only screenings of Tati’s films (including a new print of M. Hulot’s Holiday) but also exhibitions of props, costumes, screenplays, outtakes, and drawings and paintings by his friend and art director Jacques Lagrange. Add to all that guided walking tours of Tati-related architectural landmarks, screenings of a new six-part documentary on Tati called The 6 Lessons of Professor Goudet, and interviews about Tati with contemporary directors (including Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Otar Iosseliani, and Olivier Assayas) on view around the exhibit, and you have one seriously tantalizing Tati traffic jam.
On a related note, you can now buy limited-edition reproductions of some of the marvelously modern furniture from Tati’s Mon oncle at Paris’s Centquatre arts space, from April 9 to May 3. That exhibition will also feature a stunning full-size re-creation of the film’s house, Villa Arpel (pictured below).
And since we’re talking Tati, if you haven’t already, check out the official Jacques Tati website, Tativille (a.k.a. City of Tati, for us English speakers!).
1958
116 min
Color
1.37:1
1971
97 min
Color
1.33:1
1953
87 min
Black and White
1.33:1
Categories: News
10 Comments
Tue 07 Apr at 07:31 PM
Ramzi Abed
My goodness. This looks like a beautiful dream. Tati would be elated and pantomiming happiness in 7th heaven. I wish I could go. What an incredible experience. BEAUTIFUL!
Tue 07 Apr at 10:53 PM
Dan Withrow
This is amazing! It’s a great honor for one of cinema’s most creative and daring filmmakers. Bravo!
Wed 08 Apr at 04:48 PM
Peter Jones
Criterion should hold a contest to give somebody a fully payed trip to this amazing event!
Fri 10 Apr at 09:15 PM
Jean-Michel Decombe
Go to http://www.cinematheque.fr/fr/expositions-cinema/tati/ to see the intro animation, which I think is great.
Sat 11 Apr at 12:28 AM
Ted Lewis
Sounds like a truly special event celebrating a truly special man—one who put pure, unadulterated joy on celluloid! Vive Tati!
Tue 14 Apr at 09:02 AM
David Litofsky
I would still like to see the original 155 minute version of “Playtime” again. I saw it twice and the buildup to all the jokes is more satisfying. The Cinematheque’s reservation form lists the 124 minute restoration -even though the booklet has the running time as 152 minutes.
Thu 16 Apr at 02:13 PM
Jean-Michel Decombe
Newsflash: The RATP (metro) has decided to forbid the Cinémathèque from displaying billboards where Tati can be seen with his famous pipe, to advertise the Tati events, because of the Evin law that forbids direct or indirect promotion of smoking and drinking. The Cinémathèque replied by producing billboards where the pipe has been replaced with a pinwheel, arguing “Tati without his pipe, it is like Chaplin without his hat” and “A ridiculous response to a ridiculous censorship”. Says Costa Gavras, president of the Cinémathèque" “This is absurd and laughable. In none of his movies does Tati ever light his famous pipe.” The French government also agreed that this was ridiculous. Tati must be laughing in his grave.
In French: http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2009/04/16/03004-20090416ARTWWW00570-jacques-tati-prive-de-sa-pipe.php
Fri 17 Apr at 06:33 PM
cj
i saw Mr. Hulots Holiday 50 years ago at 2Am on TV.
I could not stop laughing. I will never forget that night.
cj
Wed 22 Apr at 05:55 AM
Ingrid Hoeben
“Et maintenant, c’est à vous de réfléchir”. Still missing the spirit of Tati and his movies. Since Tati, no director has risen yet to excel the great visionary. Even in my country, the (Tati-esk) surreal Belgium..
Fri 08 May at 03:02 AM
SCOTT KAYE
I dream a Tati-dreamscape: I am an American tourist, on a trip to Paris to enter the World of Tati, recreated out of the celluloid imagination of Jacques Tati. Like the tourists in “Play Time,” I never see the “real” Paris, I spend my visit only within the exhibition, “Jacques Tati, deux temps, trois movements,” before departing to return to America…
Alas, I will be content to view once again the 70mm restoration of “Play Time” in Los Angeles, at UCLA, on 4 June. I will, however, dream of missing Paris while touring “Tativille.”
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