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HerrSchreck wrote:If you're a member of this board, and you rent instead of own outright Playtime, for shame! for shame! Such an endlessly rewarding classic of classics, endlessly inspirational-- always imitated, never duplicated-- and one of CC's best SE's...

Definitely one of the "obligatory" CC's, along with titles like Seven Samurai & La Regle de jeu.

colinr0380 wrote:The Spectacular Attractions blog has an excellent post up about Playtime.

Fierias wrote:70mm or 35mm?

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2008—The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present Jacques Tati’s masterpiece “Playtime” in its original, rarely screened 70mm format at the Walter Reade Theater, Monday, Jan. 5. The comedy will screen four times—at 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, and 8:30 p.m.—while giving New Yorkers an exclusive opportunity to see the filmmaker’s most celebrated work in the visionary scope and depth he intended.

tavernier wrote:aox won't have to wait much longer...

Film Society of Lincoln Center press release:

NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2008—The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present Jacques Tati’s masterpiece “Playtime” in its original, rarely screened 70mm format at the Walter Reade Theater, Monday, Jan. 5. The comedy will screen four times—at 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, and 8:30 p.m.—while giving New Yorkers an exclusive opportunity to see the filmmaker’s most celebrated work in the visionary scope and depth he intended.

Se7en082 wrote:This was the Blu-Ray release I was waiting for! So happy!

atcolomb wrote:Lets hope Mon Oncle and Hulot's Holiday are not that far behind...

Michael Kerpan wrote:I was surprised to find that the _new_ Criterion DVD of Playtime is one of the least good-looking DVDs I've sampled so far.

psufootball07 wrote:The current edition of Playtime is just fine, it was their original release without the wacky c that was horrible.

Jon Jost wrote:Back when it was released audiences apparently voted with their feet, and this film, costly by the standards of the day, was a flop from which Tati never recovered. The critics of the day were mixed, but slowly Playtime has clawed its way to a place of reverence in critical circles. In my view the audience was right – this film is a turkey, and despite occasional flashes of brilliance (mostly at the beginning), it fails to sustain anything, uses its threads (Hulot, the American tourists) as cheap devices to string together a sequence of essentially unrelated set-pieces, and collapses in the unfunny chaos of the closing night-club passage. Its handful of funny concepts are usually driven into the ground with repetition, just as its satire tilts towards the overly obvious and far too easy. It was apparently unscripted, and in the pejorative sense of it, looks it. That Tati shows flashes of brilliance in his use of the screen space does not salvage the utter failure to orchestrate time, an essential element of any work which operates in time – be it music, theater, or cinema, or cover for many of his jokes which are facile and worn.