Playtime
Playtime is a 1967 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. "Playtime" was made from 1964 through 1967. Shot in 70 mm, the work is notable for its enormous set, which Tati had built specially for the film, as well as Tati's trademark use of subtle yet complex visual comedy supported by creative sound effects; dialogue is frequently reduced to the level of background noise. In "Playtime", Tati again plays Monsieur Hulot, the popular character who appeared in his earlier films "Mon Oncle" and "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot". By 1964, Tati had grown ambivalent towards playing Hulot as  a recurring central role; he appears intermittently in "Playtime", alternating between central and supporting roles. "Playtime" is considered Tati's masterpiece, as well as his most daring work. In 2012, Playtime was 43rd in the British Film Institute's critics' list and 37th in their directors' list of "Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time." The film was judged a financial failure at the time of its release but is regarded as a great achievement by many critics. Plot. "Playtime" is set in a futuristic Paris dominated by a hyper consumerist society, the story is structured in six sequences, linked  by two characters who repeatedly encounter one another in the course of a day: "Barbara", a young American tourist visiting Paris with a group composed primarily of middle-aged American women, and "Monsieur Hulot", a befuddled Frenchman lost in the new modernity of Paris. The sequences are as follows: Cast. When possible, Tati cast nonprofessionals. He wanted people whose inner essence matched their characters and who could move in the way he wanted. Production. The film is famous for its enormous, specially constructed set and background stage, known as 'Tativille', which contributed significantly to the film's large budget, said  to be 17 million francs (which would have been roughly 3.4 million US dollars in 1964). The set required a hundred workers to construct along with its own power plant. Budget crises and other disasters stretched the shooting schedule to three years, including 1.4 million francs in repairs after the set was damaged by storms. Tati observed, correctly, that the cost of building the set was no greater than what it would have cost to have hired Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren for the leading role. Budget overruns forced Tati to take out large loans and personal overdrafts to cover  ever-increasing production costs. As "Playtime" depended greatly on visual comedy and sound effects, Tati chose to shoot the film using high-resolution 70 mm film, and a stereophonic soundtrack that was complex for its time. To save money, some of the building facades and the interior of the Orly set were actually giant photographs. (The photographs also had the advantage of not reflecting the camera or lights.) The Paris landmarks Barbara sees reflected in the glass door are also photographs. Tati also used life-sized cutout photographs of people to save money on extras. These cutouts are noticeable in  some of the cubicles when Hulot overlooks the maze of offices, and in the deep background in some of the shots at ground level from one office building to another. Style. Tati wanted the film to be in color but look like it was filmed in black and white – an effect he had previously employed to some extent in "Mon Oncle". Predominant colors are in shades of grey, blue, black, and greyish white. Green and red are used as occasional accent colors: for example, the greenish hue of patrons lit by a neon sign in a sterile and modern lunch  counter, or the flashing red light on an office intercom. It has been said that Tati had one red item in every shot. Except for a single flower stall, there are no genuine green plants or trees on the set, though dull plastic plants adorn the outer balconies of some buildings, including the restaurant (the one location shot apart from the road to the airport). Thus, when the character of "Barbara" arrives at the Royal Garden restaurant in an emerald green dress seen as 'dated' by the other whispering female patrons clothed in dark attire, she visually contrasts not only  with the other diners, but also with the entire physical environment of the film. As the characters in the restaurant scene begin to lose their normal social inhibitions and revel in the unraveling of their surroundings, Tati intensifies both color and lighting accordingly: late arrivals to the restaurant are less conservative, arriving in vibrant, often patterned clothing. Tati detested close-ups, considering them crude, and shot in medium-format 70 mm film so that all the actors and their physical movements would be visible, even when they were in the far background of a group scene. He used sound rather  than visual cues to direct the audience's attention; with the large image size, sound could be both high and low in the image as well as left and right. As with most Tati films, sound effects were utilized to intensify comedic effect; Leonard Maltin wrote that Tati was the "only man in movie history to get a laugh out of the hum of a neon sign!" Almost the entire film was dubbed after shooting; the editing process took nine months. Philip Kemp has described the film's plot as exploring "how the curve comes to reassert itself over the  straight line". This progression is carried out in numerous ways. At the beginning of the film, people walk in straight lines and turn on right angles. Only working-class construction workers (representing Hulot's 'old Paris', celebrated in "Mon Oncle") and two music-loving teenagers move in a curvaceous and naturally human way. Some of this robotlike behavior begins to loosen in the restaurant scene near the end of the film, as the participants set aside their assigned roles and learn to enjoy themselves after a plague of opening-night disasters. Throughout the film, the American tourists are continually lined  up and counted, though Barbara keeps escaping and must be frequently called back to conform with the others. By the end, she has united the curve and the line (Hulot's gift, a square scarf, is fitted to her round head); her straight bus ride back to the airport becomes lost in a seemingly endless traffic circle that has the atmosphere of a carnival ride. The extended apartment sequence, where Tati's character visits a friend and tours his apartment, is notable. Tati keeps his audience outside of the apartment as we look inside the lives of these characters. In  September 2012, "Interiors", an online journal that is concerned with the relationship between architecture and film, released an issue that discussed how space is used in this scene. The issue highlights how Tati uses the space of the apartment to create voyeurs out of his audience. Reception. On its original French release, "Playtime" was acclaimed by most critics. It was commercially unsuccessful, failing to earn back a significant portion of its production costs. The film was entered into the 6th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Silver Prize. Results were the same upon the film's eventual release  in the U.S. in 1973 (even though it had finally been converted to a 35 mm format at the insistence of U.S. distributors and edited down to 103 minutes). Though Vincent Canby of the "New York Times" called "Playtime" "Tati's most brilliant film", it was no more a commercial success in the U.S. than in France. Debts incurred as a result of the film's cost overruns eventually forced Tati to file for bankruptcy. "Playtime" is regarded as a great achievement by many critics. The film holds a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 46 reviews, with  an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A remarkable achievement, "Playtime" packs every scene with sight gags and characters that both celebrates and satirizes the urbanization of modern life." In 2012, "Playtime" was 43rd in the British Film Institute's critics' list and 37th in their directors' list of "Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time."