Past Film/Video | Classics

Playtime

(Jacques Tati, 1967)

A person in a raincoat and hat looks over an office floor made up of dozens of cubicles. He holds an umbrella and stands on a level above the floor.

Considered Jacques Tati’s masterpiece, Playtime unfolds over the course of a single day in a hyperstylized, futuristic Paris. Don't miss this sublime classic the way it was meant to be seen!

The film follows Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati) and Barbara (Barbara Dennek), an American woman he spots through a bus window. Their winding paths almost cross—but never meet—while crowds of Parisians bustle around them in perpetual, choreographed motion. Most known for its elaborate set of skyscrapers and paved roads that Tati spent a small fortune to build, Playtime was shot in 70mm to meticulously preserve its every detail.

The New Yorker’s Richard Brody called Playtime “cinema’s fiercest and funniest jeremiad against the rigid geometry of modern architecture and the utopian social engineering that it imposes.” One of the most ambitious films ever made, the work has influenced countless contemporary favorites like Wes Anderson and Roy Andersson. (124 mins., 35mm)

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A person in a raincoat and hat looks over an office floor made up of dozens of cubicles. He holds an umbrella and stands on a level above the floor.

Playtime | Image courtesy of Janus Films

An image of a shopping plaza. On the left a man is hunched over a podium and on the right in a bar stands a man in a rain coat and hat. The entire space appears enclosed by glass.

Playtime | Image courtesy of Janus Films

Inside a shopping center at the jewelry count, stands a woman with red hair speaking to a clerk. Behind her stands a man with a hat and rain coat staring quizzically at them both.

Playtime | Image courtesy of Janus Films

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Cardinal Health
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ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Rohauer Collection Foundation

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Our Country Home
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Playtime