Feature Film | Comedy | Fr/It | French, English, & German | 2h4m
Dir: Jacques Tati | Scr: Jacques Tati & Jacques Lagrange | Ph: Jean Badal & Andréas Winding | Prod: Bernard Maurice | Mus: Francis Lemarque | Ed: Gérard Pollicand | PD: Eugène Roman | Snd: Maurice Laumain | Cast: Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Georges Montant, André Fouché, Georges Faye, Léon Doyen, Michel Francini, Marc Monjou, Reinhart Kolldehoff, Yves Barsacq
M. Hulot arrives in the city for a meeting with a man in a large, modern office block, but finds his path to him continually blocked by the trinkets of technological “progress”. Still, he never seems particularly bothered by these potential frustrations – instead surrendering to the whims of fate. Indeed, adventures with female American tourists, old army pals, irascible German businessmen, and a sticky-fingered lookalike – at both a ridiculous tradeshow and a disastrous restaurant opening – soon follow, in Tati’s wonderful fourth feature. Adventurously witty mise en scène, brilliantly complex staging, gorgeously unhurried pacing, and the maddest of madcap plotting combine to masterful effect.
