MovieChat Forums > Playtime (1973) Discussion > Cinematic self harming

Cinematic self harming


Another BFI top 50 film that seriously leaves me wondering what the hell!

The film is the cinematic equivalent of self harm. I can imagine a room full of bohemians in turtle neck sweaters, smoking gauloises in long stemmed holders and wearing berets rating this movie "Bonne" For me it is another French word beginning with M (not magnifique)

If there is one film this BFI trawl is teaching me is that I am not a cinema buff, I am a movie lover. Thank God.

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Watching the IMDB and BFI top 50's for my blog www.reviewedatrandom.com

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If you truly were a movie lover,you'd understand why Playtime is a masterpiece

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Certainly Tati's masterpiece, grossly under-appreciated, by the French as well.

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

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@Original


I am not a cinema buff, I am a movie lover.


They're pretty much the same thing---I know,because I've always been both.

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Like others have said, to see cinema and movies as different things would be a mistake.

Also many films on the BFI list are foreign language films, which for Engliah speakers means following subtitles (often poor translations) rather than watching scenes unfold. It doesn't help that they're often complex narratives (I bet you really hated Marienbad, right?)

Playtime is the opposite- without words we must watch carefully, and Tati never announces his jokes. The most interesting stuff is often happening at some quiet corner of the screen. This approaches is Tati's genius (in real life life, funny things happen in the midst of a lot of mundane boring things) but also makes it difficult to enjoy on first viewing

I bet you go back to your list one day and you'll be pleasantly surprised

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I agree with OriginalCrowlord. Mediocre at best.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, or doesn't.

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Another non-movie lover

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For me it is another French word beginning with M (not magnifique)


Merveilleux? Miraculeux? Mirifique?


What's the ugliest part of your body?

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It is possible, or allowed, to just think the film is...pretty good? I've read rave after rave after rave review for this film, and the few that weren't were pure, unfettered, HATE.

I liked the color pallette, and the general idea of the thing, and Tati's stunning ambition in building his own city just for a movie and ruining his life and spending three years on the whole thing, and I loved the shooting style, and I caught lots of the little gags, and liked them, but can I be honest? The thing wears out its welcome, and I was only watching the 2 hour cut. I mean, the party just goes ON and ON and ON and ON and ON and ON and ON. I have to be a bit forgiving of people that don't like this film--I hate arguments like "you can like every other film in the world, but if you don't like THIS one, you don't understand movies!!!"

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u mean "self harming movie lover"? 👎

迷儿の城
http://cogito.blog.com

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