439 Trafic

[cleon]

Has anyone noticed the aspect-ratio mistake in Criterion's release of Trafic, the Jacques Tati film? It happens in a night scene at 1:01:51 (scene 14, "Ride home") that shows three vehicles arriving and leaving a crossroads in a small village: one vehicle is the yellow-and-blue Altra delivery truck, the second is a small car Hulot is driving an old man home in, and the third is the Altra PR woman's sports car. Up to this scene, the film has been in standard 4:3 ratio, but here it inexplicably switches to 16:9. Watching it at 4:3, everything suddenly gets squeezed vertically. (If you switch your monitor to 16:9 everything looks fine). The mistake lasts 33 seconds, to 1:02:24, before the film reverts to the correct ratio of 4:3 for the next scene.

I guess we can add this to the list of other Criterion transfer errors already discussed in this forum: e.g. incorrect audio in a scene of Fritz Lang's 'M' (12 seconds of dialogue replaced by dialogue from a different scene!), the famous flipped image in an outdoor scene of Truffaut's 'Jules et Jim', the unrestored final minutes of Renoir's The Golden Coach, the "blueout" (as opposed to blackout) in Black Narcissus, and the incorrect aspect ratio on a number of films: The Discreet Charm of Bourgeoisie, Gertrud, Le Million, and The Marriage of Maria Braun. Criterion prides itself on the integrity of its restorations and transfers – and charges accordingly. How did these mistakes get past the people in quality-control?

[Svevan]

Finally saw Trafic and had some thoughts.

Perhaps the comparison is unavoidable and superficial, but I was reminded of Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend at certain points in this film, especially after the major traffic accident; everyone seems lost as they assess their injuries and the damages. Tati's pacing in this film (and his other films, honestly) is pretty uneven, and this moment where everything stops, everyone is displaced, and the current location is unknown and semi-abstract reminded me of Weekend's stop/start craziness and apocalyptic landscape. But just for a moment.

There may also be a comparison between Godard and Tati's representation of cars, highways, and travel, for neither seem to present Europe or France as a comfortable place to drive around, and both introduce layered chaos into their respective worlds; yet as Godard drives his characters further and further away from their original purpose (thereby driving us further and further from the point and/or the plot of the film), Tati constantly reminds us that the characters are going somewhere through his consistent cross-cutting with the car show. GringoTex said that the scenes of the picnic by the river had a "Bresson[ian] grace," but to me they felt like the apex of the chaos, as Hulot and his friends seem to have forgotten where they were going and the urgency of their mission. The hippies and the gag with the dog make me wonder "what's wrong with these people," just like Weekend. Once again, Tati shows us an "alternate" rural world that is the very opposite of the fast-paced urban industrial car show; the contrast is similar to Mon Oncle's old-Paris new-Paris dichotomy.

I also think it worth mentioning that I don't think Tati is being didactic or critical towards urbanization in any of these films. His "old-world" isn't always perfect, even in Mon Oncle where he seems to admire it the most. Both Playtime and Trafic end with bizarre ballets of people and cars, interacting with the rhythms of the city (Playtime's sequence is obviously much more elaborate), and I see these as semi-joyous roundelays, not as dreary marches in a banal urban landscape. Same, I don't think Tati's proposing that we embrace a rural, luddite lifestyle. Mon Oncle's old-Paris may be more quaint and friendly, but all the best gags occur in new-Paris, which has an aesthetic rigor that seems to alternately amuse/befuddle Hulot, and perhaps Tati as well (Tati's angular framing and camerawork is much more in line with the new-Paris than the old one). J. Rosenbaum makes similar arguments in his essay for the Playtime DVD.

I think Tati's last three Hulot films form a trilogy where he exploits the tension between the two worlds, emphasizing their differences, without being overly favorable or critical to one or the other. In Mon Oncle, Hulot visits the "new world," in Playtime he gets lost in it, and in Trafic he leaves it only to find it (and a similar rural old-world) in another country. M. Hulot's Holiday's comic gags have always seemed a bit outside the thematic structure of Tati's later films to me.

[Grigulevich]

Has anyone noticed the aspect-ratio mistake in Criterion's release of Trafic, the Jacques Tati film? It happens in a night scene at 1:01:51 (scene 14, "Ride home") that shows three vehicles arriving and leaving a crossroads in a small village: one vehicle is the yellow-and-blue Altra delivery truck, the second is a small car Hulot is driving an old man home in, and the third is the Altra PR woman's sports car. Up to this scene, the film has been in standard 4:3 ratio, but here it inexplicably switches to 16:9. Watching it at 4:3, everything suddenly gets squeezed vertically. (If you switch your monitor to 16:9 everything looks fine). The mistake lasts 33 seconds, to 1:02:24, before the film reverts to the correct ratio of 4:3 for the next scene.

I've noticed this as well. Solution: first time viewers, drink a few glasses of wine and you might not notice.

Seriously, this AR screw-up does occur — I watch on an old 4:3 CRT tv so no "switch monitor AR to 16:9 solution" for me... what can one do???

[dad1153]

Going Out of Print by the End of March.

[dad1153]

Finally saw "Trafic" over the weekend. Seeing all four Mr. Hulot movies in chronological order over the past couple of months has been a revelation. The first ("Mr. Hulot's Holiday") is such a whimsical and gentle comedy of manners and contrasts between vacationers that can't let go of their daily routine. "Mon Oncle" and (particularly) "Playtime" is Tati poking fun at modernization but also, gently, trying to convince his audience that progress is suffocating the individual and reducing a person's appreciation of the simple things as well as their historically-shared past (Tati denies this in the 'Footsteps of Mr. Hulot' documentary but I think he's lying). It's obvious to me in both "Mon Oncle" and "Playtime" Tati is hoping enough people will share his beliefs that together they could change things and/or steer French society to a less sterile, cold and/or mechanized future. By the time 'Trafic' comes around (three years after Tati went bankrupt from the "Playtime" debacle) the director has clearly given up any notion that society's modernization can be deterred. So Tati cranks up the annoying traffic noise and jackhammer-like rock soundtrack. "Trafic's" simple story (getting a new vehicle from Paris to Amsterdam for a huge car show inside an unreliable vehicle in a society where all these vehicles are destined for the junkyard anyway) and typical low-key Hulot gags (I've seen campers on "The Price Is Right" showcase that resemble what the ALTRA camping car did back in '71) feel less like a Hulot movie and more like conduits through which Tati holds both a mirror and accusatory finger at French (modern?) society. Even the showstopping traffic accident scene, clearly staged for laughs, has a cold and semi-serious detachment pointing out the many ridiculous ways people get into car accidents. Within the gentle soul of Tati "Trafic" stands out as an angry movie, a primal (though subdued) scream of sadness as the France of the director's youth is pretty much swallowed whole by progress. It's no coincidence that the last we see of Mr. Hulot he's lost amongst many other anonymous people in a huge parking lot full of lookalike vehicles in the middle of a torrential rain (tears from heaven?). I like "Trafic" (fits perfectly out of "Playtime") but not as an individual movie as much as the last piece of the puzzle that makes the Hulot movies seem like an evolutionary (from hopeful optimism to sad resignation) series of self-contained comedic masterpieces with something serious to say. Plus, as a longtime fan of Blake Edwards'/Peter Sellers' "Pink Panther" movies, it was nice to be schooled from where Sellers 'borrowed' more than a few ideas.

Was looking forward to 'In the Footsteps of Mr. Hulot' documentary as the cherry atop my finishing watching all four 'Hulot' flicks. Turns out it's a very dry and simplistic made-for-French-TV chronological documentary (movie clips and behind-the-scenes footage strung together of everything Tati ever did with minimal voice-over lines from Tati's daughter Sophie) that is nevertheless fascinating because of its subject matter. Seeing a young Tati performing (in 1930's B&W silent footage) the same boxing routines he'd recreate for his last film (1974's "Parade") shows how he never really changed his style yet remained original as his career came full-circle where he started: the music hall. Highlights (to me) included a Tati interview with a Dutch reporter when the two of them go skipping barefeet over the palace's royal garden as well as appearances on Italian and American ('Steve Allen') television. Shame this documentary is in the now-OOP Criterion two-disc release of "Trafic" though. Maybe Criterion can include it as a supplement with the other 'Hulot' movies in an incomplete Box Set?

[Svevan]

"Mon Oncle" and (particularly) "Playtime" is Tati poking fun at modernization but also, gently, trying to convince his audience that progress is suffocating the individual and reducing a person's appreciation of the simple things as well as their historically-shared past (Tati denies this in the 'Footsteps of Mr. Hulot' documentary but I think he's lying). It's obvious to me in both "Mon Oncle" and "Playtime" Tati is hoping enough people will share his beliefs that together they could change things and/or steer French society to a less sterile, cold and/or mechanized future.

I really resist this overused interpretation of Tati's work. I feel like Tati is more interested in the dance of modern life, in its absurdities, stupidities, and simple pleasures, than he is criticizing it outright. His work is far too subtle for that; I feel like many viewers of Tati, perhaps straining for meaning, are watching much more overtly didactic films than the ones I saw. Mon Oncle, certainly, presents a romanticized old Paris vs. a modernized new Paris, but where is Tati pointing his finger at us, begging us to halt progress? If the old Paris is so much more comfortable to our eyes, why is the new Paris so much funnier? In Mon Oncle, they are two necessary halves of a whole, and while both sides seem to look disparagingly on the other, Hulot is uniquely capable (as is, tellingly, his young nephew) of navigating both worlds. (Or should I say, these two are the only ones who try; Hulot gets tripped up no matter where he is.)

It's no coincidence that the last we see of Mr. Hulot he's lost amongst many other anonymous people in a huge parking lot full of lookalike vehicles in the middle of a torrential rain (tears from heaven?).

You present this as Tati's dreary end-statement, where I prefer to see the final triumphant moments of Playtime as his finale. I've stated before that Playtime's final scene is like a ballet of cars, people, and perhaps plotlines, where a few key characters pop their heads up in the same roundabout (sort of a curtain call for all the technology and people we've seen before). The end of Trafic is, to my memory, a bit more muted, but it is just as communal as the end of Playtime. Tati plays with this idea of community throughout the film, as when a community of cars (impersonal) becomes a community of people (personal) by way of an accident. So too the ending mixes cars and people, showing our McLuhan-esque relationship with our vehicles, but also pointing out that humans resiliently find connections despite our many disconnecting technologies.

I'm not saying that Tati isn't critical of the modern world - I just find it reductive, and wholly foreign to my experience, to read the films as anti-modernization. I'll admit that Trafic feels more bitter than Playtime ever was, but only in a few places. Other parts feel like a return to the lightheartedness, and lightness of theme, of M. Hulot's Holiday (the characters run off on tangents often, sometimes leaving the pacing of the film and the attention of the audience behind). That the film doesn't work is a testament to the fine line that Tati walked in the earlier two films.

edit: found myself repeating some things from a post of mine only four posts up.

[colinr0380]

Have you seen Godard's Weekend, dad1153? That makes an interesting contrast with Trafic's traffic and reveals a bit more of Tati's continued gentle interest in the characters compared to the utter contempt with which Godard portrays his murderous, grasping ones!

[dad1153]

edit: found myself repeating some things from a post of mine only four posts up.

I know, I read them before I posted my thoughts. Guess we're going to have to agree to disagree. While I don't deny the genius way Tati uses gentleness and humor to get his points across I still see the post-"Holiday" Hulot movies as pointed criticisms of modern society. It just stood out to me as I watched these flicks chronologically, less in the more gentile "Mon Oncle" but pretty palpable through most of "Trafic" and parts of "Playtime" (which has the best final shot of all four movies with that sea of lights on posts with one broken in the middle, a Kubriesque touch reminding us that men has and will always be imperfect despite his better efforts... I'm amazed most isn't made of "Playtime's" last shot with the broken light in the documentaries/articles I've read about Tati).

No, haven't seen "Weekend." Rarely venture outside the collection for my 'artsy' movies (Kino's Kar-Wai 90's movies on Blu-ray being the only recent exception) and currently trying to drum-up the cash for a handful of Criterion Godards on sale at B&N that I don't own.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Definitiely see Weekend, it's like an apocalyptic interpretation of Tati, but still quite funny.

As for Tati's view of the "modern world", is there no authoritative statement from the man himself, either in interviews or writings outside the films? I read one bio of him (Jacques Tati : His life and art by David Bellos) but that was several years ago so I don't recall much other than he seemed to suggest Tati was actually a bit of a rube, which I have no idea is accurate or not (but which could suggest his view towards technology and progress, I suppose). Certainly his criticism or dissatisfaction with society is not as didactic or harsh as films like Weekend or Brazil. I'm almost tempted to call him a sentimentalist, but I'm not sure there's really any evidence of that in his films either. I do think the Hulot character is something of a fool, though Tati's presentation of him seems to alternate between contemtuous and goodhearted.

[stiroe]

I have seen that Trafic is now OOP but is it naive of me to think that it will be shortly re-released once copyrights are renewed? I see that Mon Uncle, Hulot's Holiday were renewed after being OOP for a while.... so if one comes back won't the others? I have seen Mon Uncle and just recently purchased Playtime. I ask because I wish to see Trafic as well and wonder if I should wait, or buy now while the prices haven't gone through the roof. Thanks

[swo17]

This is a different situation and there is no reason to believe at this point that the rights are coming back. If you want it, buy it now.

[Tom Hagen]

Contrary to the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City," everything that dies will not one day come back. If you want to get a copy, purchase one while you still can.

[perkizitore]

DVDempire has it in stock.

[karmajuice]

Watched this for the first time tonight and found it absolutely delightful -- more delightful than I had anticipated, even, and I adore Tati. It was a bittersweet experience, though, as it's my last Tati feature. There's always a hint of lingering sadness when you finish a director's oeuvre, knowing you won't see anything new from them. Although I shouldn't lament yet, as I've yet to see Gai Dimanche.

I'm utterly baffled by those indifferent to the films and by the accusations of cynicism. It felt to me like one of his most persistently joyful and gentle films, where even the most frustrating modern "conveniences" contribute to the amusing fabric of life. Even the (brilliant/hilarious) multi-car pile-up results in what? -- a moment of calm, some stretching, and people helping each other out.

I quite liked Glenn Kenny's appreciation of the film here, and I'm inclined to agree with his attitude toward the film. Certainly the film begins with chaos: people being kept after work, the frantic hassle of breakdowns and accidents, the constant rushing-about of Maria Kimberly. But as time goes on the goal seems less and less important. They linger for over a day at the garage by the river. Gradually the easy-going attitudes of Hulot and the driver even wear off on Kimberly (who is also humanized by the dog prank). At the start she's moving in sharp angles and constantly changing her elaborate wardrobe; by the end she moves with ease and freedom in informal wear. The destination is irrelevant. They -- and Tati -- find their pleasures in the moment, in life's distractions, in the journey.

The final shot exemplifies the attitude of the whole film, but I don't see it in a dystopian light. Tati seems to be saying, whatever the obstacles, we will find a way to navigate them. And we'll have fun doing it.

[cache-cache]

Its not a movie, but a piece of music. Could anyone identify what the music is at 20:30 from Tati's Trafic (Criterion disc)? It would also be greatly appreciated if someone could locate a separate file for the piece. Thank you! (I didn't know where this post would fit - maybe in the 'Identify this movie' but its not a movie, so...)