Jacques Tati

 

Okay, I'm going to begin this blog with a little piece about Jacques Tati, the French comic and film director. Tati fascinates me because he's someone who brings disciplines together in order to create these wonderful hybrids which continue to bloom in the imagination long after the movie has ended: he was a mime artist who used sound (and language); his movies are full of long takes in which nothing appears to be happening but where, when you look closer, so much is happening; an awkward man physically whose sense of choreography - for himself as well as for others - was supremely balletic... the list could go on for quite a while. Indeed, I could fill page after page with praise for Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Mon Oncle and Playtime (my three favourites), but what I love about his work most of all is the creation of expansive tableaux where every square inch of the screen contains something that is actively contributing to the story, or the effect, or the emotion, or the gag (or all at the same time). It's this simultaneity of scope that I really admire in an artist, and Tati has it in spades.

Here's a very brief clip from Playtime to illustrate. So much choreography for what is essentially a gag we've all seen hundreds of times. But as well as seeing the gag itself your eye can't help but be drawn to all the things surrounding the gag, the impersonal protocols and artifice of the city - which is where Tati's deeper intentions lie. And don't forget, as I mention in my Tati print, this isn't filmed in a real city but in the mini-city Tati built for the purpose of making the film. Amazing!