Playtime (1967)

Director: Jacques Tati

I guess technically this film is a comedy, but I am absolutely positive that there is no other comedy like this one. This is a film that is a satire against the modern urbanization that makes the world an impersonal place filled with blandness and a machine-like lifestyle for everyone. It also displays the illusion so many of us live in, our pre-conceived cultural and societal notions that bar us from seeing the negative effects of urbanization and globalization.

It's a very long movie that is composed of many gags and individual scenes rather than one straightforward plot, but it's the images that do so much of the storytelling. The film was shot in 65mm, and the widescreen compositions are immensely detailed and choreographed. This film uses the visual image better than almost any film I've ever seen. There is hardly a main subject on the screen, rather, everything going on in the frame is important, even in the corner of the screen. There is an extraordinary amount of details filled in one image. Playtime is an absolute masterpiece that I will definitely be seeing again. It is a highly ambitious film with very elaborate sets, and it all plays amazingly well.

Grade: A