Traffic [VHS]

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	Actor(s):	Honoré Bostel Marcel Fraval Maria Kimberly Tony Knepper François Maisongrosse
	Video by:	Columbia Pictures
	Sales Rank:	246458

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Actor(s):
Honoré Bostel
Marcel Fraval
Maria Kimberly
Tony Knepper
François Maisongrosse

Recording label: Columbia Pictures
EAN: 9780780013629
Binding: VHS Tape
ISBN: 078001362X
Format: Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release Date: 2000-06-13
Universal product code (UPC): 037429068731
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: G (General Audience)

Description
Jacques Tati's final feature captures the wonderful absurdities of human behavior on the street and behind the wheel. Tati's comic creation Mr. Hulot returns to the screen as an absentminded inventor transporting his ultramodern camper to Amsterdam for an auto show. The route along the frenzied superhighway is paved with an amazing string of pantomime feats and sound gags, including one of the most balletic car crashes ever recorded. Tati's gift for visual comedy puts him in the company of masters Keaton and Chaplin, but Hulot--his bumbling, pipe-smoking alter ego--remains a beloved original.

Amazon.com
Trafic, one of Jacques Tati’s later films starring his enigmatic alter ego, Monsieur Hulot, contains more direct social satire than his previous classics Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), and Playtime (1967), but lacks none of the vibrant physical humor that makes Hulot one of cinema’s most revered comedic characters. Filmed in a vivid color palette of red, yellow, and green cars against a silver and glass Modernist architectural backdrop, Trafic stars Mr. Hulot as the designer of an auto meant to travel in a truck to the Amsterdam Car Show to represent his company, Altra. Hulot’s camper wagon, aimed at simplicity with its efficient built-in kitchen and sleep gear, is constantly delayed due to car accidents, police run-ins, traffic jams, and other ironic mishaps. As Altra’s director (Honore Bastel) waits in their booth decorated with fake trees and bird recordings, Hulot, truckdriver Marcel (Marcel Fravel), and stylish public relations secretary Maria (Maria Kimberly), embark on an adventure in which their vehicles are clearly in charge. Dressed in his trademark tan raincoat and hat, Monsieur Hulot constantly transforms tragedy into comedy. In one famous scene, after hippies place an animal pelt under Maria’s car tire to pass as her dog, Pito, Hulot wears the pelt and dances to cheer his friend. Extended scenes showing trafficky highways and drivers fidgeting in their cars pitted against Hulot, constantly baffled by the technology he is supposed to master, reveal underlying themes of human disconnect with nature. Trafic stands as biting commentary against a culture sabotaged by the invention of the auto, and like Godard’s Weekend, stands as testament to a revolutionary age.

This Criterion Collection release includes important extras, like a 1973 episode of French show, "Morceaux de bravoure," in which Tati speaks about his overall working methods. Also impressive is his daughter’s full-length documentary, "In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot" (1989), which collects ample archival footage of Tati and his friend, professor A. Sauvy, discussing each film’s invention. Here, Tati said of Trafic that he was inspired to make a film that would make people smile after noticing so many frowns on the Paris highways. Road rage assuaged by cinema is a truly Modern gesture. --Trinie Dalton

Running time: 89 minutes
Language: English (Unknown)
Language: Dutch (Original Language)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)