Clever and picturesque. I just love how each shot is so meticulously composed in movement and design. Perfect in its attention to detail, fluidity and subtle humor, this movie is great for a pick-me-up. If you don't find wonder in the absurdity, you're missing the point.

Quite a curious film. It's not my sort of thing and I don't find it very funny at all, but it's at least got balls. I like balls.

This is perhaps beyond words, and indeed it is fittingly short of dialogue, preferring to lose the viewer in an array of beautifully shot, and highly creative sets, imagery and screenplay. There is really no story, but the spirit is constant throughout, providing a link. Tati takes the role of the observer "looking in from outside" and seeks to find meaning in the chaos of the modern world. He finds emptiness, and struggle, but in itself this can prove remarkable and wondrous, if only for irony.

Joyous. Play Time is truely unique comedy and every frame is a lession on how to capture the perfect shot.

Captures the riot of life in the most stunning ways.

an hour too long

Play Time is a film that pretty much succeeds in every regard. With every scene ripe with extremely clever subtle humor and the occasional outrageous physical gag, and with each frame filled with eccentric characters with little to no discernible dialogue, Tati pretty much nails the absurdity of modern city life through the eyes of outsiders and tourists. Oh, and it looks very pretty, too.

With a bleeding heart, I cannot rate this film any higher. Yes, I still love the style and the ideas, the ... innovative steps in mise-en-scene and storytelling that this film take towards a new era in modern film history. Yet, watching an italian dub of this film with weak subtitling, I was largely bored. Not nearly as fun as I'd expected and passages without Hulot himself, I simply disliked. You could say that irrationally I love it, and rationally I found it a drag with glimpses of genious.

"Sure, Tati's script may have been small, but there's such depth of content in each setup." - Eric Henderson

I have to disagree with critical opinion on this film. Although it is a smart, ambitious film I find it like watching two hours of jokes about architecture. Some people praise it for all they fit into a frame, but you can't possibly pick up everything that is going on in one sitting, does that make for a good film or just a difficult to watch gimmick? This is a film with no popular appeal, I doubt I could get a friend to sit through it let alone enjoy it.

88

It comes on TV again -- I think, "I'll just watch a bit." A couple of hours later and life has a renewed beauty and curiosity.

Like nothing I have seen before. Perfectly orchestrated movie. A lot like silent comedies, minus the slapstick. There are so much going on in each frame, it's impossible to follow everything, therefore I believe it will be new with each re-watch of it. Architecture plays it's own role. Seriously, no one could describe this film, just watch it.

A movie devoted to complete continuity, monstrous charm, & ingenuity in its ever-increasingly eccentric compendium of confusion in modern life. That kind of wide-eyed view of modernity that you'd find in a Tex Avery short on the future, or perhaps more to the point, in Chaplin's Modern Times. It starts out slyly and simply but once you get to the restaurant, there's at least 10 different items/people to keep track of in every frame. To simply label this comedy seems to almost miss the point.

People with their daily livings, no story, no special person, no fairy, no black ,no white! just lovely.

Some of the incidents in Tati's futuristic Paris are brilliant & hilarious (such as the scene where Hulot visits a company for unknown reasons & is sent to a room to wait -- there he conducts outrageous, side-splitting experimentations with brand-new modern chairs). Some others are mostly uninteresting or a bit boring. But on the whole this is a film that has to be seen again and again to discover every single scene's amazing complexity and dive into its profound messages. A directorial triumph.

It's a little slow in starting, but once the farce gets going, and particularly in the epic restaurant scene, it's sublime in its subtlety and dedication to the genre. There are tons of great visual gags, and more to discover in future viewings. Slapstick is kept to a minimum, in favour of a satirical commentary on modern lives, customs, etiquette, professionalism and technology. It's silly, it's clever, it's ahead of its time and a quiet masterpiece.

#92

Mr. Hulot's Holiday and My Uncle were visual comedies. Play Time is an ultra-sensory visual comedy. There's a distinction, I promise, and you'll see what I mean within seconds of starting the movie. The set-pieces are giant and filled with people moving around doing this and that. This is as close as it gets to a Where's Waldo? movie.

The graphical apex of Tati's work, the frame constantly packed with intricate choreography. It's fucking crazy. For the first hour I thought it was strangely tame and sterile. It lacked the warmth I've come to expect from Tati, and the Hulot character himself seemed anonymous. Then comes the restaurant sequence, one of the greatest extended set pieces ever, and all hell breaks loose. Now I've realized there's a point to these adverse halves: rigid modernity is finally overcome by human charm.

Drags on a bit too long at parts, but the eye for detail and architecture is absolutely magnificent and very smart. Some very funny bits, like the people watching tv and the 'rolling chair' man. Tati truly makes art, THIS is film making

probably a bit slow in parts, yet it generally progresses interestingly

Has some of the most interesting and clever visuals I've ever seen. Eventually studying every frame got tiring, and I was ready for it to end about 20 minutes before it actually did, but it's still a very enjoyable film.

It's much like a silent movie, following in the giant footsteps of Chaplin and Keaton.

12 mart 11, pera muzesi & tati mizahi kesinlikle bana gore degil. kendisi cok basarili bir yonetmen ama komedi konusunda benim acimdan sinifta kaliyor.guldurmuyor, eglendirmiyor. fonda vermeye calistigi modern toplum elestirisi neredeyse her filminde mevcut ve oldukca islevli ama on plana cikardigi komedi etkisiz. basarili bir set, yonetmenlik..ama bir sure sonra bunlar yeterli gelmiyor ve sikilmaya basladiyorsun. oysa ki filmi gercekten sevmek istemistim.(belki zamanina gore degerlendirilmeli.)

I have to quote Roger Ebert on this, because Tati's genius doesn't get any clearer than this: "It occupies no genre and does not create a new one. It is a filmmaker showing us how his mind processes the world around him."

Painfully close to perfection. It would be 100 if it didn't tend to indulgence in the latter portion, but I'm not sure if I'm complaining or not. Every scene is jaw-dropping in its intricacy. Comedy doesn't come close to describing it, but it is consistently amusing in an unexpectedly brilliant, timeless way. I laughed, not only because it was 'funny,' but I was stricken by its wonder - a sentiment I previously felt archaic.

One of the most boring films I've ever seen. Too long and unfunny. This supposed comedic masterpiece is lost on me.

Through careful use of mise-en-scène and patient observation, Tati pitch a relevant and pleasuring ridicule of a modern, sterile world in where time is money and service a substitute for compassion.