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Jeff P My first RT review! I've reviewed the Critic and Citizen reviews. What an amazing range! (I notice that we can't make paragraphs here?) Here is why I love this movie: There are kinds of scenes in it that are in no other movies, or not nearly as well. These are core aspects of this movie. So find other movies to compare these scenes to. I think you might find Trafic coming out as a unique entry, giving it the win. So: Trafic has several scenes celebrating "interstitial" life. The scene in the jailhouse and all the people there. I suggest no other movie comes close in this regard. Now consider the truck breakdown scenes. There are a couple in the daytime. Both superb. And unrivaled. The truck really has trouble in a little backwater where we get an "overnight" interstitial delight with night-time antics. Then it's morning. There's even a boat. A beautiful boat. The best boat that a beautiful lady could spend the night on. ...According to probably a LOT of people. Not everyone will agree, of course. (These are the dull people.) The breakfast wrap-up of the truck repair is priceless filmmaking and we are the better for it. Add some neighbors waking up. Well, you see... Then there are "those who worry about how their big show will go." This movie shows those people very well. Such people exist. They need their movie. Here it is. Then there is the "work crew finishing a project on an urgent deadline." This also happens. ...A lot like in the movie. Some people say it's dated. I say: in a good way. We see hippies at work! ...Barely so. They existed! And these aren't even acting as hippies, exactly. (Tho everyone is acting-beyond-acting in a Tati movie!) Are hippies doing menial tradeswork in your other movies? I doubt it. Give it to Tati then. Of course Tati in all his movies is all about such scenes. And such scenes are nonexistent in other movies. This makes Tati the best at what he does. And it is something important that he does. Think of his kids in the vacant lots. And the stray dogs. And the little kids. And the interstitial moments. That's the heart of Tati that keeps winning. Playtime is all about "what we don't usually see." ...And it has an interstitial breakfast, too. Of course it's all like that. Moments between things. Places between places. Tati has ruined me for car chases, gun-shots, and mid-range cameras. They're all crap. Sorry! Every one of them is COPYING in a way they KNOW is embarrassing, meaning ripping us off! They are literally doing it as a job. Can you imagine actors being considered as special apart from the director of a movie? Tati explodes regular acting and celebrity. Plot and dialog, too! He ruins sound for every other movie! He spoils us by giving us UNIQUENESS. He derives from nothing but genius! (Meaning perhaps Chaplin and Keaton.) This is why I host Tati Film Fests every year and we watch everything, including the shorts. (The acting school short is a hoot. How many shorts really make you chortle?) His daughter's homage in a cafe is a delight -- yet is also her own! She adds cinema verite'! And it is brilliant! She adds an element that works to what her father did. Kudos! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/25/25 Full Review Audience Member I found this to be a very silly, tedious movie. I can see why the French were so mad for Jerry Lewis. Tati plays Mr. Hulot as some really watered down blend of Inspector Clouseau and Lewis' corny spastic physical humor. This is like some bad mix of Curse of the Pink Panther, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and generic 60's-70's French countryside movies. Not sure what it's about but I'm guessing part of it is about the bourgeoisie. Ahhh, the bourgeoisie- seems next to nothing came out of French art for a century or more that wasn't criticizing, analyzing, or satirizing the bourgeoisie. I must not be a Tati man. That's fine. I still have Truffaut, Rohmer, Denis, Godard, Varda, Bresson, Assayas, and Renoir. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Time has been kind to Tati's last film (I don't count Parade). As plotless and wistful as all his comedies, this story of a typically diverse collection of motoring misfits failing to get to a vast automobile expo is studded with Tati's usual slow-burn deadpan humour. Trafic could almost be the sequel to Playtime, and shares the long takes, implicit criticism of pointless modernity and great affection for the foibles of humanity. Poignant, prescient and at times wonderfully funny. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Just as good as PLAYTIME, Jacques Tati's TRAFIC is uproariously witty and demands multiple satisfying viewings. Great movie! 4/4 - Knox Morris Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member M. Hulot is back and he is an automobile designer. Of course, he gets into many jams (not all of them traffic jams). Tati's fifth and final outing as Hulot is gently humorous as in M. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle but not as ambitious or abstract as Playtime. Still, it is a "nonverbal" comedy that features sound effects cranked up high on the soundtrack and dialogue kept relatively low, as if it were unimportant. The plot involves getting a special camping car from Paris to Amsterdam for an auto show. Unsurprisingly, Hulot and his crew don't make it on time. The movie is all about the predicaments that they find themselves on the way. While not uproarious, Trafic is wry and amusing and French. Nevertheless, I think it is advisable to start in the beginning with Tati and move forward to see his development over time; or in fact, to see how Hulot remains the same as the context around him changes. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member just ok not my fave Tati pic Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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