Herrliche Tatis – Wikipedia Wikipedia

Tatis wonderful times (Original title: Playtime ) is a French-Italian feature film by the director and actor Jacques Tati from 1967. In German-speaking countries he is also among the titles Playtime – Tatis wonderful times and PlayTime ran.

The film takes place in a Paris, which seems to be futuristic for the 1960s, which only seems to consist of uniform glass and steel structures, without trees or green areas. The Eiffel Tower or Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre can only be seen as a reflection in the window for a few seconds.

The film character Monsieur Hulot – as shown in his other films by Jacques Tati himself – is looking for a Monsieur Giffard. He visits him in his office, but through a variety of misfortune they are constantly missing. Hulot’s path always crosses with a US bus travel group that visits Paris and is only led around in this high-rise world, which could not only stand anywhere else, but also really, as can be seen in a travel agency based on the advertising photographs : Every travel destination advertises with the same high -rise photo, which is only prettied up by some tourist set pieces. The modern world is like interchangeability.

Modernism criticism is a recurring feature of the films Tatis, in Playtime But she celebrates a climax. Above all, the impersonality, conformity and sterility of modernity is criticized, for example at the beginning when a chrome -shimmering building is like a hospital and can only be identified as an airport later. The monotony of the rooms steered the concentration on inevitable noises. In uniformity, it is above all the tones caused by humans that dissolve the desired futurism of architecture through the inherent comedy. It can be seen at a furniture exhibition that modernity will finally help this problem. The first company is already advertising with a material that no longer causes noise. Even angry door snaps remains unheard.

Human speech is also a mostly incomprehensible sound in the film that is mixed in the most diverse languages, but also reflects personality. The understanding of language is also unimportant for the action, since movement and pantomimal expressions of the sense are clear anyway.

The criticism of modernity appears less apocalyptic due to the ironicization and due to the susceptibility to pit susceptibility to the technology, but all the more apt. Humanity also regains small corners of commonality and individuality in this uniformity. In the final picture, the expression of modernity, the automobile mobility, comes into a roundabout that is like a carousel ride that never ends.

Compared to the previous film Mein uncle (1958), Tati strengthens his criticism of Anglicism or the criticism that everything modern, new, English names must have, the new, modern restaurant is called “Royal Garden”, the Glace ( Ice cream ) „Ice Cream“, die Pharmacie ( Pharmacy ) “Drugstore” or the Fromage ( Cheese ) Now “Cheese”, which leaves two older women at a loss.

Jacques Tati had her own backdrop city built for this film. However, the costs for this were so high that the film could not import these expenses despite great reviews. Today counts Playtime To the classics.

• Tatis wonderful times . Universum-Film, Munich 2005. (only DVD)
• Playtime – Tatis wonderful times . Arthaus (Studiocanal), Leipzig 2015 (DVD and Blu-ray, contain an interview with Jacques Tati, a fil-analysis by Stéphane Goudet and scenes with audio comment).

• Francis Lemarque, James Campbell: Play Time. Extracts from the film’s soundtrack . On: Extracts from Jacques Tati’s films. . Philips/Polygram S.L.S.N. Sound carrier no. 836 983-2-extracts (suite) from the original recording of film music

• Playtime Story (Original title: Playtime Story ). French television documentary by François Ede from 2002, 33 minutes

• Jonathan Rosenbaum: Tati’s Democracy: An Interview and Introduction (Initial release: Movie how 9, 3 (1973), S. 36–41).
• François Ede, Stéphane Goudet: “Playtime”. A film by Jacques Tati . Cahiers du Cinéma, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-86642-333-X.
• Michael Glasmeier, Heike Klippel (ed.): “Play Time”. Film interdisciplinary. A film and eight perspectives . Lit Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-8375-2 (media-worlds; 5).
• Nina Mayrhofer: Life in Tativille . In: Die Tageszeitung (taz) of November 2, 2002.
• Winfried Nerdinger (ed.) Katrin Fischer (transl.): The city of the Monsieur Hulot. Jacques Tatis look at the modern architecture . Architecture Museum Munich, Munich 2004, 45 pages, ISBN 3-9809263-1-1 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name in the Architecture Museum of Munich in the Pinakothek der Moderne from February 19 to May 2, 2004).

1. ↑ Tatis wonderful times. In: Lexicon of international film. Movie service, accessed on February 18, 2017 .
2. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, criticism No. 386/1968.