eig. Tattischeff
* Le Pecq 9.10.1908– 5.11.1982 .

Tati begon zijn carrière als variétéartiest en genoot als zodanig internationale bekendheid. In 1931 maakte hij zijn eerste film, Oscar, champion de tennis, waarin hij, evenals in de meeste van zijn latere films, zelf de hoofdrol vertolkte.

Beroemd werd zijn creatie van de komische figuur Monsieur Hulot in jour de tête (1947). Les vacances de monsieur Hulot (1953) is een parodie op het toerisme in een klein badplaatsje. In Mon oncle (1958) en Playtime (1967) steekt Monsieur Hulot de draak met de moderne techniek, en in Tratic (1970) wordt het autoverkeer op de korrel genomen. Voor de Zweedse televisie maakte Tati Parade (1974).

LITT. : A.J. Cauliez, Tati (1962).

Jacques Tati is a chess master of modern film comedy, a creator of complex comic structures in which gag constructions and audience expectations become pawns on his cinematic board. The recurring figure in these games is Monsieur Hulot (played by the director), a blank-faced comic cypher garbed in a crumbled raincoat and ill-fitting trousers, an ever-present pipe muffling any words he may say, an umbrella clutched in indecisive hands. His determinedly irresolute stride across Tati's expansive canvases is the unlikely spark that sets the comic machinery afire. On the basis of a mere four features (MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY, 1953; MON ONCLE, 1958; PLAYTIME, 1967; and TRAFFIC, 1972) over a 20-year period, Tati managed to reshape slapstick comedy, turning it into an intellectual parlor game.

Tati began performing in French music halls and cafes as a pantomimist and impersonator. In 1931, he filmed a comedy short, Oscar, Champion de Tennis, but it was never completed. Following were a number of short films which anticipated his later features in their use of natural and mechanical sounds—ON DEMANDE UNE BRUTE (1934), GAI DIMANCHE (1935), and SOIGNE TON GAUCHE (1936). After WWII, Tati appeared in the features SYLVIA AND THE PHANTOM (1946)/SYLVIE ET LE FANTÔME and DEVIL IN THE FLESH (1946)/LE DIABLE AU CORPS. In his short film, L'ECOLE DE FACTEURS (1947), Tati created the character of François the postman, a character he would play himself in his first self-directed feature, JOUR DE FÊTE (1949). JOUR used the riffing gag structure Tati would explore more fully in his later features, plus creative sound as a source for gags. 

Unhappy with the François character, Tati sought a persona with a more universal appeal. With Monsieur Hulot, Tati found his cosmic archetype: a zero who creates comic anarchy in his wake. In MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY (1953), Tati applies Hulot to the gag structures of JOUR DE FÊTE. MON ONCLE deals with the tension between Hulot's old world sensibilities and the new world of modern mechanization and consumerism. PLAYTIME, Tati's masterpiece, released in 70mm and stereophonic sound, examines the disappearance of humanity within the maze-like confines of post-industrial society. TRAFFIC (1972) portrays the anthropomorphism of automobiles and the mechanization of human beings.

Tati's cold, crisp examinations are a result of his re-inventing film comedy structures. Hulot has no purpose except to ignite the gag machinery. He is never the centre of a gag sequence and frequently disappears from the gag situation once the perpetual motion machine takes hold. (In one sequence in PLAYTIME, Hulot appears merely as a reflection in a glass window.) Once the gag machinery begins, Tati subverts the punch line by either delaying it or ignoring it altogether. The result creates a tension for audience expectations: will the punch line continue to be prolonged or simply demolished? Tati does not allow his audience to identify with the main character in the scene; as a result, the subject of the shot becomes everything that appears within the frame. A Tati film is characterized by a tangled texture (especially on his densely packed sound tracks) that requires many viewings to unravel.

This complexity was Tati's commercial undoing; because of the prolonged preparations required to plan his films, Tati lost his audience. The nine-year gap between MON ONCLE and PLAYTIME crippled the momentum of his career, and after the extravagances of PLAYTIME, Tati never recovered financially. When TRAFFIC (1972) was released, it seemed a throwback to his films before PLAYTIME and was a financial failure. In 1974, Tati released his final film, PARADE, a low-budget celebration of pantomime recalling his shorts from the 30s.

Although Tati influenced filmmakers as diverse as Jerry Lewis and Robert Altman, his career seems in a way to be both the beginning and the end of a comic tradition. Nevertheless, Tati's structural experiments did breathe life for a time into a moribund form.

Filmografie

1934     ON DEMANDE UNE BRUTE              assistant director, screenwriter
1935     GAI DIMANCH                             director, screenwriter, performer
1936     SOIGNE TON GAUCHE                   director, screenwriter, performer
1946     DEVIL IN THE FLESH/LE DIABLE AU CORPS                      performer
1946     SYLVIA AND THE PHANTOM/SYLVIE ET LE FANTÔME         performer
1947     L'ECOLE DE FACTEURS                  director, screenwriter, performer
1949     JOUR DE FÊTE/THE BIG DAY           director, screenwriter, performer

1953     MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY/ LES VACANCES DE MONSIEUR HULOT      
                                                   director, adaptation, story, performer

1958      MON ONCLE                 producer, director, screenwriter, performer

1967      PLAY TIME                   director, screenwriter, performer

                                                                                                                         
1972      TRAFFIC                      director, screenwriter, performer
1974      PARADE                       director, screenwriter, performer