The BigLig Thinks

SPOILERS AHEAD. Don't read this until you've seen Playtime. Don't do anything until you've seen Playtime.

Done? OK.

At the beginning of Jacqueline Tati's 1967 masterpiece, Playtime, we, the audience, are a little guilty. We know that Tati doesn't really want to make another Hulot film, but we really do want him to, and so his backers (swines that they are) have forced Playtime to be a Hulot film.

Playtime begins in a large building, and we move through it, meeting the wonderful characters who are in it, but not really paying attention because we are looking for Hulot. Of course, Hulot is not seen until quite late in Vacance or Oncle, but we are impatient. We demand Hulot! Tati knows this, so...

...very soon we are in a very wide shot of a very large room, full of people, full of characters, and then, in the back of the shot, we see the tiny figure of Hulot cross the scene. Of course, we can't see him very well, he is dwarfed in this huge space, but it is obviously Hulot: the gait, the costume, the umbrella. Hulot doesn't do anything; but we have seen him. It is a Hulot film. We relax, and now pay full attention to the other characters. Now we are no longer searching for Hulot, we really get into things. Tati knows this, so...

...very soon another wide shot in a long room, but this time we are looking at the characters, who we are enjoying, especially as we now suspect that the ninth American is the heroine, when there is a loud noise. Hulot has walked into the back of the scene again, but we didn't see him, because this time we weren't looking for him; we don't notice him until he drops his umbrella and we all look at him. The characters do too. Then he walks away, agin without doing anything. We realise with a start that we were enjoying the film without Hulot: that Tati was right all along. Tati knows this, so...

... We finally leave the building, along with the heroine, and she gets on a bus. The scene empties out, and there is Hulot again, walking past the camera and away from us. Someone sees him, chases after him and cries "Mr Hulot, hello!". We realise that Hulot's adventures are about to begin. Tati knows this so...

...Hulot turns round and it is not Hulot. It is an Englishman, Smith, who happens to be dressed like Hulot, to walk like Hulot, we have been fooled the whole time. "i think you've made a mistake" says Smith. It wasn't Hulot before, just someone dressed like him: we are right back at the beginning. We want it to be a film about Hulot but it isn't and indeed, we are fools to think that it has to be. Tati knows this so...

...soon we see the faux-Hulot get on a bus, but this time we are not fooled.we know it's not Hulot. His name is Smith. The bus makes its journey, a crowd gets off, the faux-Hulot, however, has caught his umbrella handle on someone else's umbrella, that of a tall man in a tweed coat. That's the kind of thing Hulot might do, we think, except he would be funnier, and we sigh a little, and feel a little foolish that Tati has effortlessly fooled us half a dozen times already. Tati knows this so...

...the tall man, in the tweed coat, turns round and unhooks his umbrella and gives a little bow to the faux-Hulot, and of course, how utterly perfect, it is Hulot.