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VHS : TrafficIn association with Amazon.com Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786303153261 Format: Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC ISBN: 6303153267 Label: Columbia Pictures Manufacturer: Columbia Pictures Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Columbia Pictures Release Date: June 13, 2000 Running Time: 96 minutes Studio: Columbia Pictures Theatrical Release Date: December 11, 1972 Sales Rank: 21115 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Description: Jacques Tati's final feature captures the wonderful absurdities of human behavior on the street and behind the wheel. Tati's comic creation Mr. Hulot returns to the screen as an absentminded inventor transporting his ultramodern camper to Amsterdam for an auto show. The route along the frenzied superhighway is paved with an amazing string of pantomime feats and sound gags, including one of the most balletic car crashes ever recorded. Tati's gift for visual comedy puts him in the company of masters Keaton and Chaplin, but Hulot--his bumbling, pipe-smoking alter ego--remains a beloved original. Amazon.com: Trafic, one of Jacques Tati’s later films starring his enigmatic alter ego, Monsieur Hulot, contains more direct social satire than his previous classics Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), and Playtime (1967), but lacks none of the vibrant physical humor that makes Hulot one of cinema’s most revered comedic characters. Filmed in a vivid color palette of red, yellow, and green cars against a silver and glass Modernist architectural backdrop, Trafic stars Mr. Hulot as the designer of an auto meant to travel in a truck to the Amsterdam Car Show to represent his company, Altra. Hulot’s camper wagon, aimed at simplicity with its efficient built-in kitchen and sleep gear, is constantly delayed due to car accidents, police run-ins, traffic jams, and other ironic mishaps. As Altra’s director (Honore Bastel) waits in their booth decorated with fake trees and bird recordings, Hulot, truckdriver Marcel (Marcel Fravel), and stylish public relations secretary Maria (Maria Kimberly), embark on an adventure in which their vehicles are clearly in charge. Dressed in his trademark tan raincoat and hat, Monsieur Hulot constantly transforms tragedy into comedy. In one famous scene, after hippies place an animal pelt under Maria’s car tire to pass as her dog, Pito, Hulot wears the pelt and dances to cheer his friend. Extended scenes showing trafficky highways and drivers fidgeting in their cars pitted against Hulot, constantly baffled by the technology he is supposed to master, reveal underlying themes of human disconnect with nature. Trafic stands as biting commentary against a culture sabotaged by the invention of the auto, and like Godard’s Weekend, stands as testament to a revolutionary age. This Criterion Collection release includes important extras, like a 1973 episode of French show, "Morceaux de bravoure," in which Tati speaks about his overall working methods. Also impressive is his daughter’s full-length documentary, "In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot" (1989), which collects ample archival footage of Tati and his friend, professor A. Sauvy, discussing each film’s invention. Here, Tati said of Trafic that he was inspired to make a film that would make people smile after noticing so many frowns on the Paris highways. Road rage assuaged by cinema is a truly Modern gesture. --Trinie Dalton Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Mr. Hulot returnsThis review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film Trafic is a film directed by Jacques Tati and continues the adventures of Mr. Hulot. This is the fourth and final film in the series. The other three were released in succession by the Criterion Collection several years ago and this final movie is long awaited by fans. The film is about a concept car being taken from the factory in Paris to an auto show in Amsterdam. He is delayed in customs and goes through ... Read More Rating:  - The last we'll see of M. Hulot, and a melancholy farewell it isWhat can we make of Trafic, Jacques Tati's last film? It certainly isn't a major success, as M. Hulot's Holiday - Criterion Collection and Mon Oncle - Criterion Collection are. It's not a gallant failure, as I believe Playtime - Criterion Collection is. It seems to me that it is a sad, sometimes amusing combination of those things that made Tati so unique, so funny, so problematic and so drawn to making mundane social commentary. There must be something in the water we drink or the bread we eat that causes ... Read More Rating: - TraficIn "Trafic," Jacques Tati's continuing commentary on modern society, M. Hulot works for automaker Altra. The camper he designed is to be on show at an international auto exhibition in Amsterdam. Getting to Amsterdam, though, is the challenge, and the film charts that comical course. The sleek, ultramodern, overly gadgetized camper is transported in a rundown, beat-up old van that either runs out of gas, blows out a tire, or just completely breaks down. Whether it's accidents or border patrol, there just ... Read More Rating: - More fun from Tati - not spectacular, but solid.Good fun, not a masterpiece like Mon Oncle or Playtime, but if you like Tati's other stuff, it's a must have. Rating: - Trafic finally gets the presentation it deservesIf you have made it this far, you will want to own this DVD. While not one of Tati's best, it is still an entertaining and charming movie. The extras alone are worth the DVD price: interviews with the cast and a fascinating interview with Tati himself, who reprises some of his best mime routines. Regarding the movie itself: I was stunned at not only the quality of the picture (sharp with bright colors), but the fact my VHS tape was missing about 15% of the frame on all four sides, not to mention having a horizontally ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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