Playtime (1967)

French comedy legend Jacques Tati directors and stars in this his penultimate Monsieur Hulot film. 'Playtime' is a lose assemblage of segments that concern both Hulot and a group of English speaking tourists over the better part of 24 hours in Paris. It plays kind of long so while all of these segments are good (some more then others) they might work better as short films then parts of a whole, at least up until the last two where you get your pay off. 

The film practically bankrupt Tati who was a perfectionist and spent loads of cash on the project, the large sets he had built for the film are extravagant, but play nicely off his evident interest in modern architecture and human alienation from it. Shot in 70 millimetre the film now doubt would be best appreciated on as a large a screen as possible, Tati so loves along shot and filling a frame with movement its the closet thing I've seen to 'Where's Waldo: The Movie'. 

If you see it be prepared for something very structurally different, it is only loosely a traditional narrative film. Francois Truffaut said of the movie  "a film that comes from another planet, where they make films differently". ***1/3