PLAYTIME

France, 1967, 112 minutes, Colour.
Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Jacqueline Lecomte, Valerie Camille.
Directed by Jacques Tati.

Playtime is Jacques Tati updated; but those who relished Mon Oncle and M. Hulot should take note that Tati is not on screen all the time and that there are a number of slow sequences. Tati makes us laugh by showing us how funny people are in the way they move, by their manners. He is not interested in what they say. He excels in showing us ordinary, awkward people with their idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately, much of Playtime is spent in a Parisian night club with a set of characters who are not as delightfully human as those on holiday with M. Hulot. Nevertheless there is plenty of Tati mime comedy for all audiences.

1. The appeal of Jacques Tati and his comedy? Personality, observation of human nature, observation of technological society? Human foibles in the 20th. century world?

2. The development of his art over two decades? The basic characters, mime and its development. the individual mime and the mime of orchestrated groups? The more sophisticated treatment of the themes? Use of colour. music? The editing for special effects?

3. The focus of the title? The light touch, the touch of satire?

4. How telling was the film as satire on the mad world? The presentation of the city in its various aspects, the detail of people's presence and actions and reactions at airports. the world of tourists and their being herded around, shown particular sights, their interactions, interests, feelings? The world of big business and its impersonality, people literally getting lost? The world of inventions and the praise of human ingenuity as well as the poking fun at its fantasies? The world of restaurants, society. eating and drinking, dancing and enjoyment? The satiric background to the ordinary human stories of people trying to cope, trying to relate? Human feelings and sentiment within this context?

5. Tati's comments on uniformity throughout the world today. modern cities and their all looking the same. the influence of the American look, architecture, functionality? Sameness? The airport as a symbol of this uniformity and the effect that it has on people? American capitalism and its styles in buildings, offices, the way people react? The materials of this uniform world? buildings, their artificiality, class, synthesised building materials? How was this illustrated with the restaurant and its collapse, the cars in the traffic?

6. How entertaining the long opening sequence at the airport? The large variety of people shown with their characteristic reactions? The arrivals, the old nun. the tourists? How observant of human nature is Tati? The particularly funny characteristics of the people at the airport? Waiting, impatience, anxiety, meeting one another? Accidents?

7. The structure and shape of the film? The focus on monsieur Hulot? His business, personality, friends, interaction with the tourists, business? The introduction of the tourists and their counterpointing him - the group and the individual? The girl within the tourist group who attracted Monsieur Hulot's attention? How well were they combined especially with the restaurant? The ending with the gift? The counterbalancing of the person and the group, men and women?

8. Jacques Tati's impersonation of Monsieur Hulot? As a type? Simple, naive, trying to cope. likable. absent-minded? The nature of his business and his trying to get to the executives. the man continually looking for him and the way that the film and the editing highlighted their being together yet lost in the one big building,, corridors and offices, the lift? Mirrors? Monsieur Hulot and his reaction to inventions? The contrast with the simplicity of the drugstore? The restaurant and his presence during all the chaos? Buying the gift as a token for his feelings? A gentleman?

9. The satiric observation of tourists - their arrival, noise, being herded together, the guides, what they were to look at, the American tourist abroad and the particular characteristics, the comparisons with hone, buying, bus tours, working as a group, the reaction to the inventions and the satire on American products and advertising, the outing, getting dressed, the restaurant?

10. The satire on the businessman, the restaurant guests and the staff? Comment on the success of the comic detail in each of these sequences, especially at the restaurant with the moving of the meals, crowded dancing, the musicians, the accidents with clothes and the waiter who received all the torn clothes etc.?

11. How observant is Tati on human types - his individuals being representative of aspects of human nature and foibles?

12. The importance of sight jokes and running jokes e.g. the door, the carousel of the traffic, the drunks and the broken glass, mirrors etc.?

13.? Comedy and parody as an insightful way of appreciating human nature, man's achievement, yet a warning about his depersonalisation in the contemporary world?