Jacques Tati: Things Fall Together
By November 04, 2014
In cinema history, there truly is no gag like a Tati gag. Read more »
Film Info
- France, Italy
- 1967
- 124 minutes
- Color
- 1.78:1
- English, German, French
- Spine #112
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.
Cast
| Monsieur Hulot | Jacques Tati |
| Young tourist | Barbara Dennek |
| Monsieur Giffard | Georges Montant |
| Woman selling eyeglasses | France Rumilly |
| German businessman | Reinhart Kolldehoff |
| Restaurant manager | André Fouché |
| Mr. Schultz | Billy Kearns |
| Hulot’s friend | Yves Barsacq |
| Singer | Nicole Ray |
Credits
| Director | Jacques Tati |
| Cinematography | Jean Badal and Andréas Winding |
| Screenplay | Jacques Tati and Jacques Lagrange |
| English dialogue | Art Buchwald |
| Music | James Campbell and Francis Lemarque |
| Editor | Gérard Pollicand |
| Production design | Eugène Roman |
| Sound | Jacques Maumont |
Disc Features
- New 4K digital restoration, with 3.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- 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 2013 visual essay on PlayTime by Goudet
- “Tativille,” a 1967 episode of the British television program Tempo International, featuring an interview with Tati from the set of PlayTime
- Beyond “PlayTime,” a short 2002 documentary featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the production
- Interview from 2006 with script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot
- Audio interview with Tati from the U.S. debut of PlayTime at the 1972 San Francisco Film Festival
- Alternate English-language soundtrack
- New English subtitle translation
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