Tati's magnum opus, in which Monsieur Hulot gets caught up in a cold Paris full of steel and glass architecture.
Playtime follows two parallel lines that ultimately intersect in a hyper-modern, shiny yet disorienting version of Paris. American tourists land at Orly for a short visit to the city, while Monsieur Hulot tries to find his way and look for work in the same area. In this world of glass, steel, and reflective surfaces, Hulot becomes constantly disoriented. Connections become difficult, conversations go awry, and the city itself appears more like a labyrinth of modernity than a recognizable place. The tourists and Hulot move independently of each other through the same spaces until their paths finally cross at the newly opened, chic restaurant Royal Garden, where the modern façade slowly starts to disintegrate into organized chaos.
The film has also been restored in 4K, bringing the architectural precision, visual layering, and Tati's meticulous choreography of people and space back to sharp and impressive life.
On Monday evening, September 7 with introduction and discussion
Playtime is a beautiful, absurd film that brings Kafka and Chaplin together to answer the key question of the modern age: Has the whole world gone mad? As part of our monthly Philofilm series, Nolen Gertz will discuss the film on September 7.
Tati's masterpiece is a tragicomic reflection on the ongoing struggle to remain human in a technological world — a world where even Paris can become mundane and monotonous due to the pursuit of efficiency above all else. But as Tati shows, there may still be hope that we can reclaim our humanity, even if a bit of chaos may be necessary.
About the speaker
Nolen Gertz is an assistant professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente and the author of the books The Philosophy of War and Exile (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), Nihilism and Technology (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2018), and Nihilism (MIT Press, 2019)
About Philofilm
Philofilm is a monthly series in which a philosopher introduces and discusses a film every first Monday of the month. The evenings are entirely in English. Philofilm is a collaboration between Concordia and Ideefiks, the study association for Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Twente.
Directed by
Jacques Tati
Origin
Frankrijk, 1967
Language
Frans
Subtitles
Dutch
Entrance
On Monday, September 7, introduced and discussed by Nolen Gertz as part of our monthly philofilm series.