"Trafic"

Back to the Jacques Tati box. His fifth feature film is entitled "Trafic" and uses as its central premise an automobile show in Amsterdam and the journey auto manufacturer Altra's employees (including Tati's M. Hulot) have getting to the show from France.

I'm watching Tati's films in order of production, albeit slowly. And despite "Trafic" being held in lesser regard than "Mon Oncle" and "Playtime," I think I enjoyed this one even more than the two of them. It's typical Tati, in that the film is full of sight gags, contains very little dialog (Tati's movies are great for non-French speakers who don't want to read subtitles), and plays as a whole....watching just a part of the movie won't have nearly the effect watching the whole thing will. For me, it was only at the 25-minute mark or so that I really started to get into it.

I'm also realizing that trying to talk about a Tati film in terms of examples is almost impossible. Since much of the films are a series of carefully-choreographed site gags and character behaviors, you just have to watch the films to get a sense of Tati, if you haven't. Describing them is futile. That much I know, with one film to go! Check 'em out....