Trafic
By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 7/1/2008 6:55:00 PM
CRITERION/IMAGE
Street: July 15
Prebook: now
> Tati‘s late-career delight gets a well-appointed Criterion restoration.
One of Jacques Tati’s final films, the delightful Trafic follows Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati) on a cross-continental car trip from Paris to Amsterdam. As in his previous adventures in Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Playtime and My Uncle, Hulot stumbles into a handful of adventures and misunderstandings, the majority of which are sight gags about modern society, which writer/director Tati mounts and plays for maximum laughs. Criterion’s restored edition of the film may not be in widescreen, but it certainly delivers a full palette of colors and textures. The supplemental materials are led by an outstanding feature-length documentary on the late Tati’s career, directed by his daughter, Sophie Tatischeff.
Shelf Talk: Trafic is a gimme for Francophiles and comedy lovers, but it also should be brought to the attention of those who enjoy contemporary physical comedy stylists such as Rowan Atkinson, whose Mr. Bean character is a direct descendant of Monsieur Hulot. Tati also had great influence on such subsequent French New Wave auteurs as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, so it wouldn’t hurt to mention them as well.
Foreign-language comedy, color, NR (nothing offensive), 97 min., DVD $39.95
Extras: feature-length documentary, vintage TV interview and program
Director: Jacques Tati
First Run: W, Int’l., 1971, NA
