Poll

What's your favorite film by Jacques Tati?

L'école des facteurs
0 (0%)
Jour de fête
0 (0%)
M. Hulot's Holiday
5 (17.9%)
Mon Oncle
3 (10.7%)
Playtime
13 (46.4%)
Trafic
0 (0%)
Parade
2 (7.1%)
haven't seen any
3 (10.7%)
don't like any
2 (7.1%)

Total Members Voted: 28

Author Topic: Tati, Jacques  (Read 6916 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2011, 09:38:51 PM »
Having just watched Jour de fete, I find that my rankings are exactly the same as sdedalus'.

Jared

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #21 on: June 16, 2011, 11:45:57 AM »
Play Time just might be my favorite movie now. I wish I knew whether it should have a space, a hypen, or nothing in its title.

1) Play Time
2) Mon Oncle
3) M. Hulot's Holiday
4) Trafic

1SO

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #22 on: February 27, 2012, 07:22:20 PM »
I just watched L'école des facteurs (School For Postmen). It's a 14 minute gem. Lots of great visual gags. Really worth taking the time to watch. It will brighten your day.

mañana

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #23 on: March 18, 2012, 10:03:05 PM »
Your prudency is second to none.
There's no deceit in the cauliflower.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #24 on: November 18, 2014, 10:11:06 AM »
Jour de Fete (1949)

Writer/director/performer Jacques Tati began feature filmmaking without his beloved and iconic Monsieur Hulot. While Jour de Fete lacks one of the primary features of most of Tati’s films, it still sets up many of the ideas, themes and techniques that Tati would develop and mature over his film career. While still not fully formed, Jour de Fete will be instantly familiar to anyone who has seen Tati’s later films.

The film chronicles the fair: it’s arrival into a small town, the main attractions and the inevitable departure. Initially, Jour de Fete lacks a clear narrative or character focal point (like most of Tati’s films), instead preferring to let the setting and the environment become the primary character. Although,  postman Francois (Jacques Tati) becomes the main attraction in the later half of the film.

Instead of a central story, the film is sustained by a series of sight gags. One of the strongest elements is the use of sound in order to replicate gags. Miscommunication/misunderstanding is one of the common ways comedy is employed and Tati sets up certain sounds to create associations, such as when the creaking of wood becomes so associated with a tentpole that Francois rides his bike into the shelter of the nearby cafe when it actually turns out to be a man working on a plank.

Jour de Fete shares some similar thematic similarities to Tati’s later works. The film explores the rising trends towards a modern society and its downfalls and absurdities. After Francois witnesses a film about the American postal service, he’s convinced that he’ll be taken seriously if he adapts his working techniques to the American style: a more efficient, rapid system.

Like most of Tati’s films, the absurdity of this notion is explored. In the films best moment, it’s the visual representation of the circular nature of this futile cycle for efficiency as Francois practices new biking techniques while on a merry go round. Yes, he’s getting faster, but he’s going in circles. Representing ideas of Modern society and efficiency, it shows that while the world is moving faster, it moves so fast it moves back in on itself.

But even with this magnificent visual critique of a drive towards modern efficiency, Tati frets that his message is clear. Francois must commiserate with an old lady who spends most of the film mutting to herself, which serves as diegetic narrator. While the film’s sentiment is salient, it does a much better job of demonstrating this same notion moments later without the tidily-packaged dialogue that is too on the nose.

Jour de Fete lacks the maturity and elegance of Tati’s latest work, but the warmth, sense of place, and the wry critique of modern life are all there for those looking for the signature traits of a Tati film. There are still magical moments that make Jour de Fete worth it even if the final act is clunky.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #25 on: November 19, 2014, 03:07:43 PM »
Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)

Mr. Hulot’s Holiday belongs to a rare class of films. It’s one of those titles that evokes such a warm, vibrant mood that there’s something intangibly magical imbued into its runtime. It’s a film about a holiday that shares the relaxed, idyllic pace with the audience without ever feeling droll or overstimulating. Even moments when the film seems like it should be distressing, there’s too much warmth imbued in the film to feel anxiety or stress. Each moment where the film should lul into boredom, is brought back from the brink by an interesting gag.

The best image of the films mood is introduced in the opening moments of a film: a dog napping in the middle of the road. The driver of a bus of vacationers honks the horn at the dog. The dog looks up before deciding to slowly rise and saunter out of the way. Moments later, he’s returned to his warm patch of asphalt. The titular Mr. Hulot (Jacques Tati) drives up to the same dog and his pitiful bike horn fails to motivate the dog to move. The dog remains completely unconcerned or distressed by the world around him. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday evokes a similar feeling of complete and utter relaxation.

The most potent element in producing this effect is the use of music. Alain Romans’s “Quel temps fait-il à Paris” is a slow, brassy number repeated throughout the film. This repetition often evokes a deep sense of familiarity as the film develops further. This continual aural hook makes many a scene feel as if it is outside the worries of time, simply a continual, soothing repetition.

The titular character is also integral to the core feeling of the film. Monsieur Hulot is the epitome of a gentleman, polite and considerate, perhaps to a fault. However, he is often ill-equipped to take on the unforseen circumstances that fall his way. He’s genuinely likable, but also almost childishly buffoonish and often oblivious to his environment. This leads to either overestimating his own abilities in approaching a problem, or mistaking something innocuous as a problem he should attempt to solve.

However, this trait of buffoonery is never played loud and large. He’s not seen as an idiot and most of his attempts to make things better are done with an air of politeness. The best example being when he attempts to put out fireworks, but seems to hold them so daintily that he fails to actually put any of them out and only proceeds to spread the sparks further around by being unable to toughly handle the situation. It’s a buffoonery of decorum.

Most of the gags involve misunderstandings. For instance, when Hulot’s car breaks down in front of a funeral, Hulot pulls out an innertube for his car, which falls onto the damp ground. When he picks it up, dead leaves are now sticking to the tube. As it happens, the driver of the hearst is walking by with a wreath and assumes the inner-tube is another wreath and takes it from Hulot who is, of course, too polite to correct the driver’s mistake.
 
This funeral scene, while humorous, is an example of how the film  keeps itself from being too sentimental. There is a great warmth to be found in the film, but it is not without troubles and tensions. Hulot often finds himself at odds with the other guests and the proprietor of the hotel for being messy or unintentionally annoying. By the end, he’s ostracized himself from most of the tourists after being a troublesome and disruptive presence.

Mr. Hulot’s Holiday is a delightfully warm and funny vacation film. It’s ability to evoke a feeling of relaxation and ease while also building comedy out of certain tensions elegantly balances humor and ease. It does this while always being sympathetic and inviting towards its characters. There’s no spitefulness at work, only natural and understandable misunderstandings that remind the audience that human interaction is just as defined by miscommunication as it is communication.

1SO

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Tati, Jacques
« Reply #26 on: November 20, 2014, 12:04:32 PM »
1. Mr. Hulot's Holiday
2. School For Postmen
3. Trafic

4. Play Time
5. Jour de Fete

6. Mon Oncle
« Last Edit: November 28, 2018, 12:21:23 AM by 1SO »

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #27 on: November 20, 2014, 02:41:59 PM »
I like Tati's subtle criticism of modernity and society much more than the more comic aspects of his film making!

Playtime, 85°
Mon oncle, 70°
Forza Bastia, 55°
Trafic, 50°
Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, 40°
L'école des facteurs, 35°
Jour de fête, 30°
« Last Edit: November 29, 2018, 01:49:22 AM by Knocked Out Loaded »
Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #28 on: November 20, 2014, 02:53:03 PM »
It appears that you binged on Tati's catalogue. Did you notice a lot of differences or an evolution to his process. My problem with Tati is the sameness to his style, with polite misunderstandings a common source of humor in all his work. I often tire of this single strain of humor before just one of his films is complete.
His gags grow more refined and elegant, as well as his sense of scale, culminating in Play Time.

Also, the themes of the absurdity of modern society have a sort of weird path. Jour de fete sets them up, Mr. Hulot mostly ignores them, and then there's a gradual rise from Mon Oncle through Trafic.

Parade is its own thing and doesn't factor into any of this.

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Tati, Jacques - Director's Best
« Reply #29 on: November 20, 2014, 03:20:20 PM »
Can't argue with that, really!

Here is a link for those who might want to take a closer look under the hood: http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.de/2012/09/back-from-dead-jacques-tati-day-orig.html?zx=bb5a37e537fdd423
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