Criterion's Jacques Tati titles back in print for 2004! (1 Viewer)

[Jean-Michel]

Somebody at the Criterion forums e-mailed Criterion to ask about the re-release status of Playtime. They got this response:

"We are not currently planning a re-release of PLAYTIME."

Hm.

 

[Brian PB]

In Jon Mulvaney-speak, this can be interpreted three ways:

1. "We are not currently planning a re-release of PLAYTIME", i.e., it's not on the current production schedule, but certainly may be at a later date
2. "We are not currently planning a re-release of PLAYTIME", i.e., we will not be RE-releasing our previous version, the way we plan on doing with M. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle
3. "We never intend to release Playtime under any circumstances." Note that this last interpretation is flatly contradicted by Criterion's posted announcement yesterday on their website, so this appears the least likely interpretation.

I suspect the ink is barely dry on their new rights agreement with the Tati estate, so it doesn't surprise me that the planning hasn't yet even begun for Playtime and Jour de fête.

 

[Mike Ackerman]

I just saw a 70mm screening of Playtime, and of course looked up the DVD. The Region 2 DVD (availabe at amazon.fr ) looks juicy. It even has David Lynch extra!

 

[rich_d]

I'd love to see Playtime in 70 mm. Hopefully, I didn't miss a showing in the NYC area.

Regarding the Region 2 DVD, someone at another forum said that there is no David Lynch feature on his copy. Only that David Lynch appears at Cannes during a screening of a Tati's film (presumably Playtime).

This is second hand info of course. But I wouldn't purchase it based on the marketing lingo that I saw out there without better confirmation of what Lynch has to do with it.

If true, that's a shame as Lynch is a huge Tati fan.

 

[Jeff Wilson]

Regarding the Region 2 DVD, someone at another forum said that there is no David Lynch feature on his copy. Only that David Lynch appears at Cannes during a screening of a Tati's film (presumably Playtime).

That is correct. There is a dull featurette in which all the preparations leading to a beach screening of Tati's work are shown, which includes brief shots of Lynch arriving at the screening and schmoozing with other attendees. He utters all of one sentence, which hardly qualifies buying it for Lynch fans. Actually, most of the extras on the French edition were unimpressive, to be honest. Hopefully Criterion has something more interesting in store when they eventually put out their new edition.

 

[Francois Caron]

This is great! I missed getting this DVD the first time it was released, and I really wanted to get it considering we have a 6 foot tall framed poster of the movie in the lobby of our condo building. Not a day passes by that I don't look at it at least once.

 

[obscurelabel]

The correct aspect ratio of Playtime is definitely 1.85:1 - I saw the newly restored 70mm print (with DTS sound, no less) this past August in London, and it was simply mouthwatering. I would imagine Tati masked the camera aperture at either side to produce the ratio - please correct me if I'm wrong though.

Something else on the aspect ratio ... here is a link to a page with frame blowups with mattes/masks on both sides of the frame.

http://in70mm.com/news/2003/playtime/restoration.htm

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Well spotted, Larry.

The article states that the ratio is "around 1.70:1", I find it measures 1.66:1. I guess that Tati's reason for shooting in 65mm had more to do with sound than vision; in shooting in 65, there would be no blow-up process required to 70mm 6-track and the film's soundtrack was originally intended to be heard primarily in 6-track, it seems.

Criterion would be doing no wrong in only including a 5.1 soundtrack. But they will probably give the option of 1.0 mono, Dolby 5.1 and perhaps even DTS 5.1, as the DTS mix is in there for the taking.

I haven't seen this film, but I got Mr Hulot's Holiday last week and I loved it. The moment where the dog lies in front of Hulot's car and he beeps the horn and it walks over to him and, instead of scolding the dog, he pets it, it had me hooked, I thought that seemingly trivial moment laid out the attitude of the character beautifully. Hulot is an great character. I have Mon Oncle in the mail, and I can't wait to see it, and Playtime will be must-buy when it eventually arrives.

What's the status of Jour De Fete?

 

[Jeff Wilson]

Regarding the use of the DTS track or a 5.1 track on a future release, the recent French SE only has a Dolby 2.0 track, for reasons I am unaware of. If they made a DTS track, wny not include it?

 

[Brandon Conway]

Is there any reason to think Criterion may eventually put out Traffic or Parade?

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

The BFI will be releasing Playtime on July 26th, according to www.mastersofcinema.org (at top-left of page)

The question is whether or not it will be a new transfer or the transfer used on the French edition, which had a green tinge to it.