Description
Though he made only a handful of films, director, writer, and actor Jacques Tati ranks among the most beloved of all cinematic geniuses. With a background in music hall and mime performance, Tati steadily built an ever-more-ambitious movie career that ultimately raised sight-gag comedy to the level of high art. In the surrogate character of the sweet and bumbling, eternally umbrella-toting and pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Tati invented a charming symbol of humanity lost in a relentlessly modernizing modern age. This set gathers his six hilarious features—Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, PlayTime, Trafic, and Parade—along with seven delightful Tati-related short films.
- New digital restorations of all six feature films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays of Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, Trafic, and Parade and 3.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray of PlayTime
- New digital restorations of all seven short films: On demande une brute (1934), Gai dimanche (1935), Soigne ton gauche (1936), L’école des facteurs (1946), Cours du soir (1967), Forza Bastia (1978), and Dégustation maison (1978)
- Two alternate versions of Jour de fête, a partly colorized 1964 version and the full-color 1995 rerelease version
- Original 1953 theatrical release version of Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
- My Uncle, the version of Mon oncle that director Jacques Tati created for English-language audiences
- Introductions by actor and comedian Terry Jones to Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, and PlayTime
- Archival video and audio interviews with Tati
- In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot, a 1989 documentary about Tati’s beloved alter ego
- Five visual essays and a classroom lecture by Tati expert Stéphane Goudet
- New interview with critic Michel Chion on Tati’s sound design
- “Jour de fête”: In Search of the Lost Color, a 1988 documentary on the restoration of the film to Tati’s original color vision
- Once Upon a Time . . . “Mon oncle,” a 2008 documentary on the making of the film
- Everything Is Beautiful, a 2005 piece on the fashion, furniture, and architecture of Mon oncle
- Selected-scene commentaries on PlayTime by Goudet, theater director Jérôme Deschamps, and critic Philip Kemp
- Tativille, a documentary shot on the set of PlayTime
- Beyond “PlayTime,” a short 2002 documentary featuring on-set footage
- “An Homage to Jacques Tati,” a 1982 program featuring Tati friend and set designer Jacques Lagrange
- Interview from 2006 with PlayTime script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot
- Tati Story, a short biographical film from 2002
- Alternate international soundtracks for Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday and PlayTime
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translations
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics James Quandt, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kristin Ross, and David Cairns
New covers by David Merveille