Movie #58: Released in 1967, directed by Jacques Tati, 115 minutes. New to me!

LetterBoxd score: 4.5 stars

I got started a bit late on this movie, and so I thought I would probably have to split it in two parts. But it was too compelling to stop. Indeed, I found it so quietly captivating that I didn’t even want to get up and walk over to another part of the room, where I had a jar of M&Ms. High praise!

At the outset, you think the movie is going to be a cynical satire about the soulless modern world. Everyone is (for the most part) dressed in shades of gray. They’re obsessed with pointless gadgets like a sweeper with headlights or a door you can shut silently. The setting is Paris, but it’s all glass towers. We get glimpses of the Sacre Couer, the Arc de Triomph, and the Eiffel Tour, but only as reflections in the glass of towers, almost like ghosts. Posters advertising vacations in other countries – the USA, Japan, London, Germany – indicate this is the state of the world now. It’s all quietly funny, but it is bleak.

But to my surprise, the movie is kind of a slow burn delight. Maybe Tati is just an unshakeable optimist at heart, because while the movie goes to great pains to depict a kind of modernist nightmare, it has a kind of wry take on it and it can’t help but show people being people. It’s a world where friends recognize you on the street and invite you for a drink. Sure, their home has a glass wall that opens out onto ground level street, but the people are cheery.

It all kind of comes together during the extended restaurant sequence; as chaos and dysfunction mounts, an improvised party takes over. People play the piano and sing, share their drinks. You can’t help but grin. And then the party spills over into the daylight and the colors are brighter than in the past and Hulot gives a scarf to the young tourist with whom he has made a connection and its emblazoned with images of old Paris. Yes, the world is crazy. But humans are resilient. It will be alright.

Why would someone think it’s one of the ten greatest movies ever made?

I’ve often thought about how hard it is to make a movie that’s just about happiness. There are paintings and songs that primarily convey moments or feelings of joy and happiness, but it doesn’t seem easy to do in film. Narratives seem to be about ups and downs. And this movie does have little dramas in it; but the key thing might be that they are just little dramas.

On top of that this movie is one that knows film is visual medium. It’s big, it has style, those sets. It has a bit of a “how did this get made” vibe; in a good way.

Next: 2001 – A Space Odyssey