Outtakes: Jacques Tati

Director Tati and stills from Mr. Hulot's Holiday, My Uncle and Playtime

Who is he?

French film director, actor and scenarist who wrote, directed and starred in six feature films between the late forties and the early seventies. Tati is famous for his fictional alter-ego Mr. Hulot — a tall, clumsy figure in formal clothing out of tune with the rhythm and conventions of modern living, reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s tramp. His third feature My Uncle (1958) won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Why is he of interest?

Though a highly acclaimed filmmaker, Tati’s name frequently gets lost in the cracks when charting the history of French cinema, primarily due the unclassifiable texture of his filmmaking. Located outside both French “Cinema of Quality” and the French New Wave — two schools that dominated the periods he was working during — Tati’s movies somehow seem to reside in a historical vacuum, which is understandable given their timeless quality.

Where to discover him?

My Uncle witnesses Mr. Hulot’s visit to his sister’s family in suburban Paris and the ensuing confrontation with their artificial, ultra-modern lifestyle. Like his subsequent film

Playtime (1967),

My Uncle is a hilarious, biting critique of the fakery of modern living that uses coldly geometric, otherworldly architecture, colour and décor to illustrate an existence far removed from reality. As with his other films, the film displays a strong compositional sense and an incredible eye for detail.

What are his films about?

Themes

Tati’s films satirise the superficiality and synthetic behaviour of upscale social classes — a feature that places his cinema in direct continuity with the French theatrical genre of Comedy of Manners — and the Kafkaesque technocracy of the industrial age. His earlier films, on the other hand, unfold like memories of childhood and present snapshots of life in the idyllic French countryside with its own set of lovable eccentricities.

What are his films about?

Style

The films of Tati attempt to resurrect silent cinema in the era of sound, not just by the near-absence of dialogue but also by the innocence, directness and spirit of experimentation they embody. The most notable aspect of these films is the judicious use of screen space, with the frame being subtly sub-divided into smaller frames and each of those sub-frames suffused with comic detail. Images are composed in deep focus, utilising the depth of space in a way that illustrates the contrast between characters and the environment that dwarfs them.