Playtime

Screening on Film

Directed by Jacques Tati.
With Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Jacqueline Lecomte.
France, 1967, 35mm, color, 126 min.

In this brilliant sendup of the absurdities of modernist architecture, actor-director Tati reprises the beloved character of Monsieur Hulot, who does battle with urban space as he observes a group of American tourists on their peregrinations around a Paris of modern office blocks and skyscrapers. The extraordinary metropolis of glass and concrete, designed by Eugene Roman, combines with Tati's incomparable articulation of sound, image, and performance in this hilarious yet poignant analysis of the modern condition.