Playtime

A labyrinth of steel, glass, escalators and elevators, lost in it a confused tall man with drooping shoulders, raincoat, hat, high-water pants and striped socks: Monsieur Hulot, who else. Paris in this modern present is no longer the city of love as we know it, but the city of bustle, cool, forbidding, modern.

Hulot, however, must survive even in this hostile world of hard surfaces, so he needs a job. For that, he must meet with a certain Monsieur Giffard, one of the many important guys in one of the many companies in one of the many skyscrapers. But due to constant Tati's coincidences Giffard remains untraceable, Hulot wanders lost through the right-angled neighborhood - and on his twisted hero's journey meets a few people who might help his adventure to an unexpected happy ending after all.

Hubris comes before the fall: With his heartfelt project PLAYTIME, which was incredibly lavishly produced for its time, Jacques Tati wanted to make fun of the looming future - and completely overlooked the fact that he had long since been overtaken by the present. The audience was not amused, the law of "Why should I want to watch this?" cannot be broken. The result was a gut punch of epic proportions, the film was highly praised by critics but was a commercial failure, Tati had blown a huge budget and got heavily into debt.