Playtime - Criterion Collection
by Jacques Tati, Nicolas Ribowski, St?phane Goudet
List Price:
Our Price: $35.99
You Save: $3.96 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $21.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alain Fayner, Barbara Dennek, Jacques Tati, Marc Monjou, Rita MaidenDirector: Jacques Tati, Nicolas Ribowski, St?phane Goudet
Brand: Image Entertainment
Writer: Jacques Tati
Writer: St?phane Goudet
Producer: Bernard Maurice
Writer: Art Buchwald
Writer: Jacques Lagrange
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 124 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-05
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Playtime - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Extraordinarily Well-Made, But A Bit of a Failure
Summary: 3 Stars
Jacques Tati's follow up to Mon Oncle - Criterion Collection is a wonderful looking film with a central theme of alienation. At the center of it is Tati's Monsieur Hulot who feels completely out of place in modern day France amidst the revealing architecture and the hustle of crowds, etc. While Mon Oncle and its predecessor M. Hulot's Holiday - Criterion Collection both fell into the sort of slapstick sub-genre, Playtime has a more serious tone to it. Although it does have enough sight gags to fill an almost unbearable 2 hour, 4 minute running time.
I'm just going to flat-out say it right here. Playtime is a bit boring. In making a film about alienation (to a certain extent), Tati deliberate alienates much of his audience. Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't. In one particular scene, Hulot runs into an old friend and joins the man in his apartment. The camera remains outside allowing us no insight into the ensuing conversation. The brilliant, yet very long, sequence that follows has the inhabitants of two apartments watching TV. This scene is brilliantly staged, choreographed, and shot. It just wears out its welcome.
I guess the biggest problem with Playtime is its plot. Any attempt I could make at describing it would be futile because it doesn't exist. Arguably, the same could be said for the first two films as well but here, the lack of plot is what breaks the film.
Anyone looking for another "Holiday," will be disappointed, as the Hulot character takes a backseat to this story. His presence is not just largely absent, but largely missed in the opinion of this viewer.
Don't fret Playtime fans. I do have some positive things to say about it.
The film is very well-made and very elaborate. The sheer architecture of the set design is exquisite. Beyond that, Tati's uses of reflection to reinforce his themes are simply brilliant. Another thing I rarely pay attention too that stood out in this film was the sound. The use of sound and sound editing in this film is complex and brilliantly structured. There isn't a quiet scene in the entire film. There is always the eternal buzzing, humming, ticking, whirring, and wheezing of modern technology. All these sounds are used to remarkable effect.
The sight gags in this film are also very articulate and (sometimes) quite amusing. The scene (and several scenes that follow it) in which Hulot breaks a restaurant's glass door and the doorman uses the handle to continue "opening" the door for people is brilliant. Tati seems like he would've been very comfortable and possibly even much more at home in the silent medium.
Playtime has many characteristics that could sway one to call it brilliant. It's true that much of the film does bare pure brilliance. However, some editing I think would've done the film good. You can't judge the quality of a film based on its entertainment value, especially a film like this which is so terrific in so many other areas. However, my lack of being entertained made the film seem inferior to the other Hulot-stories, which in many ways it is.
Large portions of Playtime move at such a snail's pace, I found myself zoning out through entire passages of the movie.
I don't think Playtime is a C-film; it's just not a film I can see myself watching again.
GRADE: C
Summary of Playtime - Criterion Collection
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 09/05/2006There's never been, and never will be, another comedy like Playtime. Three years in the making, French comedy master Jacques Tati's 1967 classic was an epic, experimental undertaking of unprecedented scale: Requiring the lavish construction of three entire city blocks of ultra-modern buildings, it was the most expensive French film up to that time, financially ruined its creator, baffled many viewers and critics when it was finally released after numerous delays, and is now regarded as Tati's undisputed masterpiece. Once again, Tati plays his comedic alter ego, the hapless M. Hulot (first seen in 1953's Mr. Hulot's Holiday), seen here as a befuddled pawn on a gigantic chessboard (metaphorically speaking) of modern conformity. He's simply trying to get to an appointment, but in the film's astonishing mock-Parisian landscape of antiseptic steel, glass, and plastic, Tati's resonant theme of contemporary confusion is fully expressed through meticulous use of framing and space--so effectively, in fact, that critic Jonathan Rosenbaum (in an accompanying essay) suggests that the film's dazzling "Royal Garden" sequence "may be the most formidable example of mise-en-sc?ne in the history of cinema." With M. Hulot taking a back-seat to the film's breathtaking accumulation of visual details, Playtime (or, if you prefer, Play Time) rewards multiple viewings, revealing something new every time in its widescreen canvas of subtle gags and delirious eccentricity. Although journalist Art Buchwald provided English dialogue for the film, Playtime bears closer kinship to silent comedy, with universal humor and a musical soundtrack that's as essential as any of the visuals. Tati (1908-1982) never recovered from the film's financial failure, but happily, he lived long enough to see Playtime receive its much-deserved critical re-appraisal. --Jeff Shannon
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Criterion Collection DVDs I'd Like to Own
8 1/ 2 - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2001-12-04; DVD
Best price: $19.79
Price in other shops:
Umberto D. - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2003-07-22; DVD
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops:
Days of Heaven - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $27.24
Price in other shops:
Bicycle Thieves (Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-02-13; DVD
Best price: $27.81
Price in other shops:
The Double Life of Veronique - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-11-21; DVD
Best price: $26.93
Price in other shops:
Pandora's Box - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-11-28; DVD
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops:
Sweetie - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-10-24; DVD
Best price: $27.10
Price in other shops:
Cria Cuervos (Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2007-08-14; DVD
Best price: $22.22
Price in other shops:
Spirit of the Beehive - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-09-19; DVD
Best price: $27.95
Price in other shops:
Metropolitan - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-02-14; DVD
Best price: $27.34
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
Pierrot le Fou - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2008-02-19; DVD
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
Shoot the Piano Player - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2005-12-06; DVD
Best price: $21.19
Price in other shops:
Seven Samurai - 3 Disc Remastered Edition (Criterion Collection Spine # 2)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $34.00
Price in other shops:
The Red Balloon (Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-04-29; DVD
Best price: $7.69
Price in other shops:
Amarcord (Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $25.95
Price in other shops:
BreathlessGenius; Release date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $10.68
Price in other shops:
The Third Man (50th Anniversary Edition) - Criterion CollectionDVD
Best price: $45.97
Trafic - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2008-07-15; DVD
Best price: $25.50
Price in other shops:
M. Hulot's Holiday - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2004-01-06; DVD
Best price: $20.17
Price in other shops:
Mon Oncle - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2004-01-06; DVD
Best price: $19.30
Price in other shops: