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

M. Hulot's Holiday (1953)

Director: Jacques Tati

 A very charming and amusing comedy that feels very much like a silent comedy of the 1920's. Tati uses pantomime and slapstick comedy in a movie that technically has sound, but actually has very little dialogue. The movie uses sound in its comedy, but almost none of the comedy comes from the dialogue. What's also impressive is that it succeeds in creating an evironment and setting that is individual, and seeing the same bunch of characters over again helps create that world.

Most of the vacationing guests are rich and continue to do what they like to do despite Tati's shenanigans, and that makes it a gentle satire on that upper class lifestyle. But that's not to say that it's some scathing satire, the film is very light. The movie is composed of gags after gag, instead of a narrative, and that makes for a very effective comedy but I'm not so sure I was prepared for that style. The film is enjoyable, but it is not something that is all that deep. It's one of those movies thats a must-watch for fans of the style, but not all that necessary for everyone else.

Grade: B