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Play Time: Jacques Tati and Comedic Modernism
Jacques Tati is widely regarded as one of the greatest postwar European filmmakers. He made innovative and challenging comedies while achieving international box office success and attaining a devoted following. In Play Time , Malcolm Turvey examines Tati’s unique comedic style and evaluates its significance for the history of film and modernism.
Turvey argues that Tati captured elite and general audiences alike by combining a modernist aesthetic with slapstick routines, gag structures, and other established traditions of mainstream film comedy. Considering films such as Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Play Time (1967), and Trafic (1971), Turvey shows how Tati drew on the rich legacy of comic silent film while modernizing its conventions in order to encourage his viewers to adopt a playful attitude toward the modern world. Turvey also analyzes Tati’s sardonic view of the bourgeoisie and his complex and multifaceted satire of modern life. Tati's singular and enduring achievement, Turvey concludes, was to translate the democratic ideals of the postwar avant-garde into mainstream film comedy, crafting a genuinely popular modernism. Richly illustrated with images from the director’s films, Play Time offers an illuminating and original understanding of Tati’s work.
Turvey argues that Tati captured elite and general audiences alike by combining a modernist aesthetic with slapstick routines, gag structures, and other established traditions of mainstream film comedy. Considering films such as Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Play Time (1967), and Trafic (1971), Turvey shows how Tati drew on the rich legacy of comic silent film while modernizing its conventions in order to encourage his viewers to adopt a playful attitude toward the modern world. Turvey also analyzes Tati’s sardonic view of the bourgeoisie and his complex and multifaceted satire of modern life. Tati's singular and enduring achievement, Turvey concludes, was to translate the democratic ideals of the postwar avant-garde into mainstream film comedy, crafting a genuinely popular modernism. Richly illustrated with images from the director’s films, Play Time offers an illuminating and original understanding of Tati’s work.
- GenresFilm
304 pages, Paperback
Published December 3, 2019
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January 16, 2021
This is a very detailed study (and liberally illustrated with film stills) on the syntax of Jacques Tati’s films, how the great comedic actor and auteur elaborately constructed his gags. Tati sometimes is seen as a lesser figure alongside e.g. Chaplin and Keaton, but Turvey reveals him to be extremely elaborate and complex in his humor compared to his forebears, with so many funny things happening on the screen at once that audiences won’t get them all at once. I found that in spite of repeated viewings, I missed out on a lot of the jokes in Playtime, for example.
The last chapter examines to what degree Tati’s Mon Oncle and Playtime are critiques of modernity, or whether they are more nuanced depictions of France in the glorious years of the postwar boom. While Tati’s last film Parade is generally regarded as a minor effort and Turvey doesn’t look at it for most of this book, the last chapter consists of a defense of this film, as he argues that it continues many of Tati’s traditional concerns in spite of its very different format.
One of Turvey’s concerns is to show, from the actual films and from Tati’s comments in interviews, how his art emphasizes the humor of everyday life. The book does get a little repetitive as Turvey brings up again and again this “participatory” aspect of Tati’s aesthetic. Nevertheless, I am happy to have read this book, as my appreciation of Tati’s films has only been deepened.
The last chapter examines to what degree Tati’s Mon Oncle and Playtime are critiques of modernity, or whether they are more nuanced depictions of France in the glorious years of the postwar boom. While Tati’s last film Parade is generally regarded as a minor effort and Turvey doesn’t look at it for most of this book, the last chapter consists of a defense of this film, as he argues that it continues many of Tati’s traditional concerns in spite of its very different format.
One of Turvey’s concerns is to show, from the actual films and from Tati’s comments in interviews, how his art emphasizes the humor of everyday life. The book does get a little repetitive as Turvey brings up again and again this “participatory” aspect of Tati’s aesthetic. Nevertheless, I am happy to have read this book, as my appreciation of Tati’s films has only been deepened.
Displaying 1 of 1 review