Jacques Tati's - Playtime - DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review Jacques Tati Playtime DVD Review

(aka "Tempo di divertimento")

directed by Jacques Tati
France 1967

Jacques Tati, the choreographer of the charming, comical ballet that is Playtime, casts the endearingly clumsy Monsieur Hulot as the principal character wandering through modernist Paris. Amid the babble of English, French and German tourists, Hulot tries to reconcile the old-fashioned ways with the confusion of the encroaching age of technology.

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Theatrical Release: September 14th, 1967 - France

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DVD Comparison:

Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Per-Olof Strandberg for all the screen captures!

(Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Criterion Collection Spine # 112 Region 0 - NTSC	Future Film (Finland) Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:59:15 Including (00:23) Criterion / Janus Film titles that are not in the Future Film disc.	1:59:06 (01:58:08 without the new titles)
Video	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s	1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 1.0)	French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Subtitles	English, and none	Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Home Vision Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Video introduction by writer, director and performer Terry Jones (6:17) • Cours du Soir, a 1967 short written by and starring Jacques Tati (27:39) • New and improved English subtitle translation •Line notes from Kent Jones DVD Release Date: May 22nd, 2001 Keep Case Chapters 22	Release Information: Studio: Future Films (Finland) Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 Edition Details: • Jacques Tati short films: • Soigne Ton Gauche (1936) (11:53) • L'Ecole des Facteurs (1947) (14:25) • Cours du Soir (1967) (26:30) • Jacques Tati biography (9 page in English) Also available in a box set including Playtime, Jour de Féte, Mon Oncle, Les Vacances de M. Huolot and Trafic. DVD Release Date: November, 2003 Keep Case Chapters 16
Comments:	Well the Future Film DVD is quite dark and has a greenish tinge, but it does show how much was cropped from the Criterion on all 4 sides. It seems quite substantial. The Criterion is brighter and sharper but the Future Films has some great Tati shorts as Extra features (same shorts on other Criterion Tati releases). The Future Films has no English subs so many might unfairly discount it immediately. There is minimal dialogue so it really isn't an imperative to comprehend the film. Personally, I am very disappointed in Criterion's cropping. The discrepancy in the times, and missing scene, is mentioned by Per-Olof below. I calculated the cropping to be about 17% by Criterion. 17% is a lot!. Imagine removing 17% from your favorite piece of music, or canvas art, or sculpture... - Gary W. Tooze Picture: The first time I watched Playtime in a Cinema, the copy was all red, like the first color photos in everyone's albums. From that stage these two prints are a big improvement, but none of these two DVD's are as good one could hope! The Criterion has more sharpness, the black level is better, but the picture is so much cropped on every side, that it destroys many comically framed scenes, and for certain it destroys almost every picture composition in the film. I can't really recommend it! But then again, the Nordic disc has less sharpness, and some pictures are so dark that you don't even know what happens in them. The black level is very green / grey. The Nordic DVD has more colors than the faded Criterion and overall it seems otherwise better. I wonder if the Nordic disc is the same print that the currently released in France! Hope not! DRAW. My suggestion is to wait for the new Criterion release in 2004. Sound: Jacques Tati made for an entire year the 6.0 soundtrack for this movie. The sound is really important in this film. Both DVD's contains only a mono soundtrack. The Nordic disc has more dynamic audio of the two. Extras: Even tough the Future Film contains three short films and the Criterion only one, the missing two can be found in the other Criterion Collection Jacques Tati DVD releases, so true fans will have more value in the extras of Criterion (the introduction by Terry Jones). The short COURS DE SOIR gives a good understanding of the making of Playtime. *Per-Olof Strandberg* ************ WHY is the Criterion DVD shorter ? As quoted in the Guardian article located HERE Playtime was finally released in 1967, but was seen throughout most of the world in a shortened 35mm cut. Jerome Deschamps (a distant cousin of Tati who is behind the restoration) says there were many versions of the film in circulation. "Tati had enormous financial difficulties. The financial partners who rescued the film insisted it be released in a version under two hours long that would be more commercial." The restored cut lasts two hours and six minutes. "That was the last length he chose," Deschamps says. The new version - which cost 5.5 million francs - was paid for by everybody from designer Agnès B to various banks and cultural organisations. Many critics see Playtime as Tati's masterpiece. Fremaux says there was something prophetic about it: "What is interesting about him is that in his early films, he looked at the France of holidays, of something very light; but in Playtime, he took a look at the future. He is or he was a victim of the future because the film was a failure. So the 126 minute version fits well with the 01:59:06 Future film version (pal speed-up). So there are missing about 4-5 minutes from the Criterion version. I once more try to find if there are some minor cuts missing from the Criterion. The new title-credits, missing 1:34 and the longer end music, makes that I suppose that there are left some 1,30 - 2,30 minutes missing The Criterion is a shorter (international?) version. At the time at 22:47 in the Criterion disc the following scenes is shortened by approx. 1:34 min. It's not only that there are missing something: the following moments in the two versions are different. Before the re-matching scene, there are few seconds of a picture (Tati running) that the longer version don't have. It's a continuing shot were the man with the blue folder appear just after that Tati run out from the picture (see below). Here's screen caps: Two caps that the Criterion disc misses, and one cap that reunion the two versions (and misses from the Futurefilm). And the final frame (man runing with the blue folder are in the both. I think there is three versions of the film. The French 155 minutes, that don't longer exist(?) and the shorter version and a version made for the North American market. But I can't confirm it! *** PLAYTIME - With the new 70mm and 35mm restored prints of the film finally making the rounds across the country, everyone can finally see how great this film is and how great it looks. A new DVD is sure to follow, as these copies are history. On that sound mix, it seems Tati did an 8-track soundmaster, but the film is a 5.0 mix with all the sound coming from behind the screen, meaning a five-speaker configuration that includes traveling dialogue and sound to the extreme. Whether he intended special 8-track playback (ala Cinerama) is unclear at this time. DTS seems to have exclusively restored the soundtrack and that's great. Hopefully, if Criterion does issue the film on DVD as it seems they will, it will have the DTS option. The new film is 127 minutes, though initial cuts may have run longer. There will be more to say when the DVD arrives, no matter which company issues it. Nicholas Sheffo of http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/**

Recommended Reading in French Cinema (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


The Films in My Life by Francois Truffaut, Leonard Mayhew	French Cinema: A Student's Guide by Philip Powrie, Keith Reader	Agnes Varda by Alison Smith	Godard on Godard : Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard	Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson	Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2) by James Quandt	The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau	French New Wave by Jean Douchet, Robert Bonnono, Cedric Anger, Robert Bononno	French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present by Remi Fournier Lanzoni

Check out more in "The Library"

WHAT IS MISSING FROM THE CRITERION ?

ADDED From Per-Olof

The only reason to have the Criterion "readers digest" version of PLAYTIME is that this DVD witness a sad piece of movie history, were true talent means nothing in the world of movie business! This is the most shameful DVD Criterion ever has given out, and a true black mark in their otherwise fine history!

The Criterion disc is cut by approx. 6-8 minutes (pal speed-up) and also cropped by 17% of the original frame (Gary's comment). The shortening is also made very rough handed! Who on earth want this DVD!

I know that this film has had several versions, but still....

Criterion DVD misses the following scenes (nine):

1) On the Criterion disc at time 6:48. AIRPORT. The reporters are following "the short" man. The cut is a continuity cut. They have cut from the one scene with "the short man" directly to the next, so that we are following a straight story. The original cut drops the man, and at short after a "false" Hulot appear in the picture. Because the film has only statist , with actually no leading characters in it, this cut destroys the feeling of many persons doing something at the same time. Also Tati has implant several false Huolot's in the film, and this takes away one!

MISSING FROM CRITERION APPROX. 10 SECONDS. See below;

Criterion - Left - Future Films - Right

2) On the Criterion Disc at 17:33. OFFICE. A rough cut, where Hulot is waiting for the director. The original Hulot appearance to a empty picture, first his shadow and the himself playing with his pipe. In the Criterion disc this is cut with no rhythm, suddenly from the middle.

(see picture below left).

MISSING 10 SECONDS

3) On the Criterion disc at time 17:38. OFFICE. Direct after the last cut, there is shortened the scene. In the longer version Hulot walks to the chair, test, and estimate it before he sits. The Criterion version is cut, when he already sits, and for speeding the rhythm, the directors comes in at the same time (see middle picture).

MISSING 10 SECONDS

4) On the Criterion disc at 19:16. OFFICE. When waiting for the director, Hulot walks around in the office. Before he comes to the window where there are busses, we se a refection off him in the window. The Criterion version has cut this away.

(see picture below right)

MISSING 8 SECONDS

5) On the Criterion disc at 22.47. OFFICE. Hulot search for the director. This scene has been shortened in the Criterion version, and it's the only place that you can find a different cut in these versions. The Criterion has a short scene were Hulot is running that misses from the longer version. (see large captures above HERE)

MISSING FROM THE CRITERION VERSION APPROX. 94 seconds

6) On the Criterion disc at 24:12. EXHIBITION. Here's a very forced jump-cut. The Criterion version have taken away 19 seconds from the middle of a scene. You see in the examples, that in the Criterion cut the man has an black jacket, and suddenly he is changed with a man that has a brown jacket. The examples from the Criterion disc are the two following frames. (see pictures below right)

MISSING 19 SECONDS

7) On the Criterion disc at 24:16. EXHIBITION. Directly after the last cut, there are missing a scene where a man demonstrate a chair for Hulot. ( see left picture below)

MISSING 34 SECONDS

8) On the Criterion disc at 25:42. TRAVEL AGENCY / STREET. There's a scene where a group of women walks out from the buss. One woman stops at a poster. In the Criterion version the scene starts in the middle, and the first 12 seconds are missing. (see right picture below)

MISSING 12 SECONDS

9) There are longer end music in the Future film version.

Because all the cuts are in the first 26 minutes, they seems very forced, and quickly made.

DVD Menus

(Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

Screen Captures

(Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)

(Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)

(Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)

(Criterion - Region 0 - NTSC - TOP vs. Future Film - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)

DVD Box Covers

Distribution

Criterion Collection Spine # 112

Region 0 - NTSC

Future Film (Finland)

Region 2 - PAL

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Sound:	Future Film
Extras:	Tie
Menu:	Future Film

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