20/05/2002 - The Festival presents the restored version of Jacques Tati´s biggest and most expensive film, Playtime

Everybody who´s anybody crowded into the Palais des Festival for yesterday´s screening of Jacques Tati´s most popular film but also his most critically underestimated, Playtime. Michel Piccoli climbed the famous staircase that had been decorated for the occasion by Macha Makeleff and Jérome Deschamps (the curator of the restoration work) wearing Monsieur Hulot´s famous mackintosh and hat. He was greeted at the top by this year´s jury president, David Lynch.
Although Tati (whose real name was Jacques Tatischeff) died more than twenty years ago, the singular comic language he used to draw the audience´s attention to the way in which the modern world impedes our enjoyment of life lives on.
«People are sad and nobody whistles in the street anymore. If the day comes when I stop whistling in the street, that will be a very sad day,» said Tati.
Tati´s philosophy is incarnated by Monsieur Hulot, the imperturbable character who walked in fits and starts and had a unique taste in clothes. Tati embarked on a film career after many years spent in cabarets and music halls, and enjoyed immediate success. His first feature film was the 1949 black and white Jours de fête. The film was subsequently coloured and went on to win the Grand Prix du Cinéma in Paris. Mon oncle won the Special Prize at the 1958 edition of Cannes and Le vacances de Monsieur Hulot was literally submerged by trophies. Tati waited nine years before making the (for its time) daring Playtime. This epic production called for an entire city to be built near Vincennes, east of Paris.
Inevitably, a witty journalist called the set «Tativille», and the name stuck . «Tativille» was built between July 1964 and January 1965 and covered an area of 15,000 square meters and had real streets, running water and electricity. Tati made Playtime on 70mm film and in stereo. He also went bankrupt in the process and ruined his career when Playtime flopped. French critics tore the film to pieces and it was then further penalised by a terrible distribution because only a handful of film theatres were able to screen the film as Tati intended it to be seen.
Hence the decision of the Cannes Festival to pay tribute to Tati´s most ambitious and courageous project. Playtime is a ferocious denouncement of the gradual Americanisation of French society and perhaps now it is about to enjoy a second youth.
A dutiful tribute to the world of Jacques Tati where everyone laughs and everyone is open to ridicule.

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(Translated from Italian)