Narrative stories like to follow along and advance through a main character or a set of main characters. This is the accepted narrative trope that's been dominant over the centuries. It is also a limitation of textual narrative works, for example novels are blind without it, they cannot advance. When a novel tries to lose fixed characters and takes the role of an observer, the novel would likely become subversive (like how epistolary novels are) and also abstract, too incomprehensible. Cinema do not share the problem, as it is a visual medium and can carry along the story through the frames and their juxtapositions. Still, cinema too has followed the same trope throughout history. There are some exceptions, like Luis Bunuel's The Phantom of Liberty. And the film by Tati I'm talking about today, Playtime.
Playtime advances without developing any lead characters, then introduces Monsieur Hulot (whom I see as an outsider), subsequently takes him away, leaving us with the mass, who are collectively an entity, one single character, similar to when we address the human race as one. Perhaps introduction of Monsieur Hulot and a few regular faces in the film too acts as a carriage bearer of the narrative chunks, but I'd argue that Hulot did not need to be in the film, neither did those other regulars. Without them, Tati could express whatever he wanted to and he did just that in most parts of the film.
The film takes place in a futuristic Paris, where modern life is all about the concrete jungle and all the superfluous facades it bestows upon us. Consumerism took over the world. A group of american tourists come to visit Paris, and all they do is wander around business centers and product shops and restaurants. The iconic scenes of Paris are ignored. Eiffel Tower is shown for a second, through a reflection that no one but the audience sees. The camera focuses on a the travel agency's advertisement. All travel destinations, regardless of the countries, have similar mega structures, bland looking corporate offices. And Monsiur Hulot (played by Tati) is the auteur Tati himself, baffled, lost in ultra-modern consumerism, suffocating.
Tati shot the film on 70mm and built the enormous set for the film. This massive undertaking did not do well in the box office. Not surprising. Not only tati destroyed personal characters, he took away dialogues. Most of them are murmurs, inaudible to a level that only gives the impression of speech, not what was spoken. The film relied upon the very thing cinema is all about, visual storytelling. But this approach made the film's grand narrative somewhat abstract — even though individual visual comedic elements are self-evident and should be comprehensible to even a child. The film is pretty hilarious if anyone can sit through it. However, failing at box office hardly matters as it is considered as one of the 50 greatest films of all time by the Sight and Sound critic/director poll.
That is also understandable. Playtime is high art. The frames are astoundingly detailed. In many shots, the wide screen captures a lot of activities. From a glance, they might look random and visually they are. Many similar looking office rooms, people working. Restaurants tables, people eating, chatting. But if you look closely, they are not there to fill the silence, they are not random shots. All the characters tell some stories, our stories, separately yet all at once. They are metaphors. The film is filled metaphors of different kinds. Take the royal garden restaurant for example, it shines with outward wealth and fineness, yet paint comes off, ceiling crashes down — insinuating all is definitely not well.
One of the arcs I will mention specially. Monsieur Hulot goes to his friend's apartment. The apartment is right by the road, its entire road-facing wall is transparent glass, floor to ceiling. The lives of the inhabitants are observable by the world. What they do, what they eat, what the wear. Does it feel absurd to you? Think again, we are already living in such a world.
Jacques Tati was an epitome of French cinema. Even though he made films before and during the French New Wave, he's not associated with the movement. He was a monument all by himself. A true auteur. It is always a delight and honor for me to see him act and direct his films.
Playtime (1967) by Jacques Tati Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYB8hgyq4s
