Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Michel Polydor Playtime (1967), written and directed by Jacques Tati and probably one of his most brilliant films, is one of a kind, an amazingly funny movie that drives rather on incidents of comedic value than a funny dialogue-based script. A sign of Tati's craftsmanship in using the language of film in its true form.Playtime is set in Paris, or a Paris that still needs to exist in the future. At first sight the landmarks of the city seem to be excluded although, if we are fast, we can see the reflections of these landmarks in the reflections of the so modern (for its time) glass and steel constructions of the buildings. Upon watching this film you get a high sense of incidental chaos although everything is very structured and layered. The modern world created by Tati is a chaotic yet structured ballet of the people living in it. There is no plot, no main cast and almost no audible dialogue. Tati rather chooses for a script in the form of funny incidents. He controls the viewer and creates a game of observation. There's hardly any dialogue, and the dialogue that we get is mostly inaudible. The comedic relief comes from the nonstop flow of the visual gags that keep happening on screen, something that only Tati masters. These aren't laugh-out-loud gags, but smiles of recognition.As mentioned earlier there are no main character in this movie although some stand out more than others, for example his own Mr. Hulot, an attractive American woman or a restaurant owner. It is as if Tati tries to trick us with this kind of technique. As movie goers we are trained to find the main characters and we empathize with their emotions throughout the movie though this won't work watching Playtime. Sometimes you lose the 'main' characters and find them again walking around the corner. All these elements make Playtime a movie that begs to be watched more than once to fully appreciate the art that Tati has created. The cinematography of Jean Badal and Andréas Winding show us only the big picture of it all, instead of close ups or reaction shots. This particular style gives you the opportunity to search action at the screen wherever and whenever you want. As a viewer you are almost played at with a game of hide and seek, you constantly want to know what happens in the background, the forground and behind the camera lens. Tati draws a strong contrast between humans, hopeful, and wondering through the impersonal and modern cities of the future. We see all these things happening before our eyes, not from someone's point of view but rather through the lens of the camera. Tati gives the movie goer the opportunity to make their own assumptions of the world he created. Although you can feel that the comedic touch of the film is actually his reaction towards these modern societies, the loss of a more personal city. Although the high production costs bankrupted Tati, Playtime is undoubtedly a magical and funny masterpiece that still holds up to its time. It shows that Tati is an artist as a physical comedy actor and visionary director.

Baccchewa Playtime is probably one of the best movies that is the most difficult to like. That's because it's very strange. Masterfully directed and photographed, but with a story that is as elusive as a greased snail. Long scenes, often with no apparent content or meaning, makes it difficult for the viewer. If you look closely, you'll notice little details that you love to giggle at, and one would more or less involuntarily make interpretations of what is really happening. Monsieur Hulot, who figures in Tati's films (Tati himself), pops up here and there in the film to a backdrop of a newly built and modernized Paris. There are certainly several interpretations of the basic plot, but my own is that Hulot represents a type of man who feel alienated in this increasingly technology-dependent world, where greyness and rectification is taking over and people are getting increasingly further apart. Hulot stumbles aimlessly about in this newly built world and messes things up most of the time. You get the feeling that all these career -seeking , money-driven people around him are unhappy and most of all looking for company. They grab onto Hulot in different situations, seeking contact, maybe because he is the only true original. The long restaurant scene is an example of how our true nature is revealed when the alcohol loosens the shackles of conformity and we begin to act like people. The orchestra, playing relaxed jazz in the beginning, gets more primitive the longer the evening goes, and eventually making the guests dancing like monkeys. No one is satisfied until half the restaurant has collapsed. The end is sad in an elusive way - it's like social progress has already dictated how we should live. The old, simpler, more human life lies behind us and will never come back .

lasttimeisaw Haven't done any homework when I was stumbling across my first Tati's film, and never imagined a film could be made in this way, a legitimate horizon-widener of film-making. The film commences in its befuddling narrative-void montages of variegated characters in the Paris airport of the vintage time, later, follows a group of American housewives-tourists embarks on their city route, first stop is a futuristic modern edifice of an Expo-esque site for a visit, while incorporating Monsieur Hulot (Tati himself), a well-mannered old man who keeps bypassing the man whom he supposedly should meet. After a short stopover at his upstart friend's newly- purchased home, Monsieur Hulot fortuitously bumps into the guy he had been looking for all day during a rubberneckers' gathering. The subsequent location resides in a nearly-furbished restaurant with a melange of patrons and staff (Monsieur Hulot and the American tourists included), the 45-minutes main course of all-inclusive gags, bloopers, transforms a hoity-toity eating place to a chaotic shindig, a sensible mockery and revelry of the vagaries of our humdrum activities. The film finishes with the tourists' return to the airport in the dusk light, and Monsieur Hulot's goodbye keepsake to one of the elegant American lady (Dennek), a silk kerchief, bespeaks the epitome of the metropolitan city. Basically, the film flouts any narrative-driven urges to underpin a normal feature film, the first half, viewers are being induced of an impression amounts to a loitering in a museum, with gigantic visual installations, emancipate a post-modern surrealism through the architectures, interior designs and costumes. The mirror-reflection antics have been ingeniously imposed many times to highlight several landmarks of Paris, the interlude of a transparent home design with minimalistic accessories is still avant-garde 45 years after. The restaurant bulk is more lively (both visually and aurally), a masterly farce encompasses minute boo-boos with miscellaneous players, every and each is done with a light touch but effectively strikes a chord with its resourceful wits and humor, and for certain, multiple watching is a must to extensively sense the virtuosity of all the arrangements, slap sticks and the esprit de corps, it is also the dramatic personae's playtime, in spite of that each and every one is bit part, counting Monsieur Hulot.Near the end, Tati culminates his love letter to Paris with a carousel-alike orchestration of vehicles lumbering around a circular parterre, an innovative amusement park metaphor renders immense pleasure through Tati's mojo.The film cost Tati 10 years in debt due to its commercial failure, with only 5 films made through his time, sadly it is a genius filmmaker and comedian who is way ahead of his time and should have been appreciated more. PLAYTIME is a marvelous feat, I cannot say if it is the case of Tati's other oeuvre since I'm plain a beginner in the territory, and it shines immaculately in the BluRay disc, I wonder it would be a perfect option to be enjoyed even you just leave it play in the background, each time you glance it, you will discover little gems there, profoundly witty or optically stimulating.

ToliBera2 This is quintessentially the worst film i've ever seen. the pacing was so slow it was going backwards. the comedy in the film was duller than stagnant dishwater. the characters did less than nothing. and the subtitles would pick up on everyone's conversations instead of what was important.then there was the restaurant scene. THE GOD DAMN RESTAURANT SCENE. KNOW WHEN TO END YOUR SCENES MOVIE. this moment in the film dragged on forever. it also teased me horribly giving me hope that the place would burn down and end the film on a happy note. but no it frustrated even on this level. This film is so bad we should bury it under the ET video game cartridges.