PlayTime

New episode of the Cineflek podcast is OUT NOW!! Playtime is Jacques Tati's most ambitious work, and it shows. There's something spectacular about watching something so layered, there are blink-and-you'll-miss it storylines, self references to scenes that happened an hour ago, This movie is really broken down into two halves, the restaurant scene and everything else (or day and night). The first half is more visually spectacular and much more pessimistic about the role modernization is playing in our lives. The second half of the movie, you are a fly on the wall in this restaurant's opening night which they aren't at all ready for. The visual gags are so layered on top of each other you don't know where to look. In fact, Tati chooses to shoot this entire movie in wide shots. While the restaurant scene is equally chaotic, showing a modernized world that makes are lives more complicated, it is also optimistic. It looks fun, and humanity is able to shine through, despite machinery trying to tamp it down. Tati shows us that technology interrupts our lives, but people will still find ways to have fun despite it all. This film is more relevant than ever. If anything our lives have become more like Tati-ville, with us living more virtually than physically, more tethered to technology. The humor in this movie is situational, which the characters often don't find humorous in the moment. Much like in Playtime, most of the humor in the world is hidden in plain site, accessible if only you choose to see the world like Jacques Tati. All you have to do is look up, look out, and take your time.