My musings on Jacques Tati’s Trafic, to my mind a wonderful and misunderstood film, have just gone up over at The Auteur’s Notebook. The splendid Criterion DVD of the picture streets on July 15.
I’ve been meaning to head up to Harlem to check out the Maysles Cinema ever since it opened in March, and I now have even more of a pretext to do so and/or less of an excuse not to, as the case may be: Sunday, the uptown arthouse with a documentary emphasis begins its series “Strangers in a Strange Land” which runs through August 5. Curated by the Museum of the Moving Image’s astute and, incidentally, personally delightful Livia Bloom, it starts with a bang: a marathon screening of Louis Malle’s beautiful, penetrating seven-hour Phantom India. Other delights include an inventive double bill of Vigo’s A propos de Nice and Chantal Akerman’s beguiling News From Home. The schedule is here; a good news piece about the Maysles Cinema is here.
It really is the catch-all phrase for bullying your way into any situation: “I’M in public relations.”
Great read on the Zen comedy that is “Trafic.” I just watched it for the first time a couple nights ago, and yes, while it’s not as big and dense and magical as “Playtime,” I can’t remember the last film that had me grinning from beginning to end, even during that cruel, cruel doggie joke.
Thanks for the heads up about the Maysles Cinema. It looks like Livia Bloom has put together a compelling series. And having worked for her briefly, yes, she is a delightful person.
I love Traffic. An essay needs to be written on Tati & Bresson. I believe there are very similar aesthetics involved in both directors. There’s rigor in Tati’s take on modern life, as there is humor in Bresson’s. Not Three Stooges yuks, but humor nonetheless. I saw Traffic way back in college, and it knocked me out. There are beautiful images that have stayed in my mind for decades, like the umbrella wandering off in a sea of umbrellas. And Tati has an amazing sense of cinema space.
On the one hand I’m with you about the dog joke, though on the other: as the only sick joke in the Tati canon it’s a darn good one, and perfectly orchestrated – when Hulot pulls off the “dog“ ‘s eye I absolutely lost it.