Trafic

Jacques Tati

 
Trafic Criterion DVD

DVD

2 Discs

SRP: $39.95

Out of Print
  • France
  • 1971
  • 97 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.33:1
  • French

SYNOPSIS: In Jacques Tati’s Trafic, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, outfitted as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’s highways and byways. For this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company’s director of design, and accompanies his new vehicle (a camper tricked out with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’s expert timing and sidesplitting visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

Monsieur HulotJacques Tati
Truck driver Marcel Fraval
Director of ALTRA Honoré Bostel
FrançoisFrançois Maisongrosse
MechanicTony Knepper
MariaMaria Kimberly

Credits

DirectorJacques Tati
ProducerRobert Dorfmann
ScreenplayJacques Tati
with the artistic collaboration ofJacques Lagrange
And the participation ofBert Haanstra
CinematographyEdward Van Den Enden and Marcel Weiss
Set designAdrien De Rooy
CostumesJacques Esterel
MakeupGert Van den Bergh
EditingMaurice Laumain and Sophie Tatischeff
DubbingClaude Plouganou
SoundEd Pelster and Alain Curvelier
Sound mixerJean Nény
MusicCharles Dumont
ConductorBernard Gérard

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot (1989), a two-hour documentary tracing the evolution of Jacques Tati’s beloved alter ego
  • Interview from 1971 with the cast of Trafic, from the French television program Le journal de cinéma
  • “The Comedy of Jacques Tati,” a 1973 episode from the French television program Morceaux de bravoure
  • Theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic Jonathan Romney

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Trafic: Watching the Wheels

By Jonathan RomneyJuly 14, 2008

The usual French term for traffic—meaning the movement of motor vehicles—is la circulation. The word trafic can be a synonym for it, but its primary meaning is traffic Read more »