Playtime (1973)
94%RT Audience Score: 89%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
4 wins & 5 nominations total
A remarkable achievement, Playtime’s packs every scene with sight gags and characters that both celebrates and satirizes the urbanization of modern life.
Playtime is the kind of movie that makes you feel like you’re in on a secret joke that only the director and his team are in on. It’s a visual feast that will leave you wondering how they managed to pull off such intricate scenes without a single word of dialogue. Tati’s Paris is a wonderland of modernity and absurdity, and you’ll find yourself laughing at the smallest details. It’s a film that deserves to be seen on the big screen, where you can fully appreciate the genius of Tati’s vision. Don’t miss out on this masterpiece!
Production Company(ies)
Hollywood Pictures,
Distributor
Criterion Collection
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
610 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for strong depiction of thematic material
Year of Release
1993
-
Color:Color
-
Sound mix:Dolby Stereo
-
Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
-
Runtime:1h 33m
-
Language(s):English, Mandarin, Cantonese
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 27, 1973 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 5, 2006
Genre(s)
Comedy
Keyword(s)
Comedy, French, 1967, Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, directed by Jacques Tati, written by Art Buchwald, Jacques Lagrange, Jacques Tati, produced by Bernard Maurice, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Richard Brody, Kate Muir, David Jenkins, Dave Calhoun, Noel Murray, Eric Henderson, Hannah Kinney-Kobre, Brian Eggert, Nicholas Bell, Dennis Harvey, Allen Almachar, Pamela Hutchinson, MPAA rating, Criterion Collection, urbanization, sight gags, characters, American tourist, inventive urban environment, quirky characters, satire, technology, conformity, Paris, skyscrapers, sound design, 70mm, dehumanized society
Worldwide gross: $32,901,136
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $68,344,055
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,201
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 7,453,005
US/Canada gross: $32,901,136
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $68,344,055
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 932
US/Canada opening weekend: $159,009
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $330,302
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,510
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $11,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $22,849,807
Production budget ranking: 1,300
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $12,304,621
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $33,189,627
ROI to date (est.): 94%
ROI ranking: 961
Barbara Dennek – Young Tourist
Jacqueline Lecomte – Young Tourist’s Friend
Valérie Camille – Mr. Lac’s Secretary
France Rumilly – Seller of Glasses
France Delahalle – Shopper in Department Store
Director(s)
Jacques Tati
Writer(s)
Art Buchwald, Jacques Lagrange, Jacques Tati
Producer(s)
Bernard Maurice
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
4 wins & 5 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (53) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (1)
Tati’s despair is modulated by a sense of wonder.
March 2, 2015
Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
Jacques Tati’s Playtime is an astringent antidote to Paris movies that are as sickly as macaroons and stuffed with views of the Eiffel Tower by night.
November 7, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
Kate Muir
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
For my money Playtime is the greatest film ever made.
November 6, 2014 | Rating: 5/5
David Jenkins
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
Jacques Tati’s 1967 masterpiece still holds up as a feast of subtle sight gags, playful noise and, above all, visual wonders.
November 4, 2014 | Rating: 5/5
Dave Calhoun
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
PlayTime is a work of unparalleled genius.
November 3, 2014 | Rating: 5/5
Noel Murray
The Dissolve
TOP CRITIC
Sure, Tati’s script may have been small, but there’s such depth of content in each setup.
August 18, 2009 | Rating: 4/4
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Another genius movie that made the foibles of everyday existence into grand set pieces…
May 9, 2022
Hannah Kinney-Kobre
Pittsburgh City Paper
This kind of film exists on a level all its own.
February 14, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
There is not a written description of the film that would ever begin to do it justice, but it happens to be one of those rare, supremely unique and utterly mind boggling examples of cinematic possibilities.
November 3, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
An even more remarkable Rube Goldbergian contraption of visual comedy that turns all Paris into an ultramodern advertisement for itself. Its brilliance requires almost no dialogue…
November 3, 2020
Dennis Harvey
48 Hills
The sheer complexity of each scene must have taken a tremendous amount of coordination and planning, and yet it feels so alive.
July 17, 2020
Allen Almachar
The MacGuffin
Playtime, [Jacques Tati’s] masterpiece, is a work of brow-furrowing complexity in its design and structure, but a model of narrative clarity.
March 27, 2020
Pamela Hutchinson
Silent London…
Plot
In Playtime, Monsieur Hulot navigates the complex and gadget-filled streets of Paris, meeting an American tourist along the way and encountering a cast of quirky characters.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Jacques Tati, who plays Monsieur Hulot in the film, also directed and co-wrote the screenplay.
Jacques-Tati.jpg
