Jacques Tati's last - and least known - film, Parade, sees his return to the boisterous music hall world in which he began his career as a mime artist in the 1930s. Ostensibly nothing more than a series of circus acts hosted by Tati and preformed for a family audience, Parade is in fact a brilliantly conceived spectacle which blurs all distinctions between performers and audience, accomplished acrobats and children at play. Offering gloriously funny visual gags that flow beautifully from one act to another - including several of his most famous pantomimes - Parade is the perfect stage for Tati's comic genius.

'It's a sign of this films greatness that the enormous sadness that accompanies the final leave-taking of the circus interior is a good deal more than the conclusion of an unpretentious evening's entertainments; it's a sublime and awesome coda to the career of one of this century's greatest artists.' 

- Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

***

Robert Frost noted upon verse libra vs. ordinary verse, that it was as playing tennis without a net. In his review Roger Ebert suggests that “Parade” is verse libra in film. Not a bad simile at all, as there is nothing of substance in “Parade” at all, even to the point of Tati actually playing tennis, without a net… and a ball.

“Parade” is the last film by Jacques Tati. His two prior films, “Playtime” and “Traffic” had been failures and while they had been hell to finance, he was now completely unable to find any backers for his projects. Along came Swedish television, who offered him a tiny budget and a three day shooting schedule. The result was “Parade”.

It is not really a film, nor is it Tati. There is no structure or plot. Its more an anarchic exercise in Tati comedy, which he himself called “out of control music hall”. One could go as far as to call it a recording of an amateur circus rehearsing their acts.