Tati story (2002) - full transcript
- It's half past. Shall I?
- Yes, turn it on.
Like every night
at this same time, it's...
Professor Platov's TV Hour!
Tonight, the life and work
of Jacques Tati.
Jacques Tatischefif a.k.a. Tat/j was born
in Le Pecq, near Saint-Germain-en-La ye,
on October 9, 1907.
His paternal grandfather,
Dimitri Tatischeff,
was a military attache
for the Russian embassy in France.
His maternal grandfather,
Mr. Van Hoof,
was a Dutch picture framer
living in Paris.
Jacques was the second child
of Claire Van Hoof
and Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff,
who took over his father-in-laws
framing business.
He grew up at L Ermitage, the family
home in Saint-Germain-en-La ye.
Although his upbringing
gave him an appreciation for art,
Tati never had a master
nor a mentor.
His attraction for cinema came primarily
through his body and through play.
At 17, on the beach at Saint-Tropez,
he gives his first mime performance,
a soccer match
as seen by a goalie -
which he'll revisit 49 years later,
along with three other sketches,
in his last film, Parade.
Two years later,
his academic career less than bright,
he begins apprenticing
in his father's workshop.
His future is clear:
He'll follow in his father's
and grandfather's footsteps
and enter the framing business.
But 1928 marks the start of two
experiences that shaped him in his youth:
his military service
in the 16th Dragoon,
the Calvary Regiment
of Saint- Germafn-en-L a ye,
and playing second row for
the Racing Club de France rugby team,
where he was
the post-match entertainment,
imitating the players, spectators,
and referee of the match
just played.
In the military,
he learns schoolboy jokes
and rebellion against authority.
As a result, in 1931,
he leaves home
and the family business
to take the stage with a routine
called Sflent Sport
at the annual gala
of the Racing Club de France.
In 1932,
Tati tries his hand at cinema,
writing and starring in
Oscar, champion de tennis,
which was probably never finished
and is now lost.
He tries again two years later with
On demande une brute,
written with Alfred Sauvy,
captain of the Racing Club de France
and later a renowned economist.
Tati plays the lead,
supported by the clown Rhum,
whom he rejoins the f0//owing year
in Gai dimanche,
directed by Jacques Berr
instead of Charles Barrois.
Step right up.
Enjoy this fine weather.
Just 35 francs a ride.
A visit to the chéteaux,
a pleasant drive,
an outdoor lunch,
and the local attractions,
all for a set price of...
Thirty-five francs.
Step right up.
But the stage is where he triumphs:
at the Ritz in 1934
in a gala finale that includes
Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett,
at Théétre Michel in 1.935 where Silent
Sport becomes Sporting Impressions,
and in 1936 at the ABC music hall
with the same show.
“Henceforth, "
writes Colette in Le JoumaL
“no party or artistic acrobatic show
would be complete
without this surprising artist
who's created something new
thatS part sport, part dance,
part satire, part tableau vivant.
Jacques Tab}
both horse and rider,
brings a fabulous beast to life
for Parisian audiences:
the centaur. ”
In 1936 he also writes
and stars in his first “real” film:
Soigne ton gauche,
directed by Rene Clement
long before The Battle of the Rails,
Forbidden Games, or Purple Noon.
After his triumphant tour
of European stages in 1937,
he writes, stars in, and even directs
Retour é la terre,
which was also lost,
probably unfinished.
He takes refuge,
probably in 1943, in Marembert,
near Sainte-Sévére-sur-Indre -
where Jour de fiéte
would one day be shot -
after he's drafted for a few months
in Cambrai in 1939.
On May 25, 1944,
he marries Micheline Winter
seen here in the light-colored dress in
L'Ecole des facteurs.
In 1946, he appears in Claude
Autant-Lara 's SyMe and the Phantom,
and very briefly in
Devil in the Flesh.
On October 23
his daughter Sophie is born.
From May to November 1947,
he shoots Jour de fete with two cameras:
one for color,
another for black and white.
But Jour de fiéte wouldn't find
a distributor until 1949.
The black-ahd-white version
was a smash hit upon its release
and won
the Grand prix du cinéma frangais.
The color version
would have to wait until 1994
for Frangois Ede and Sophie Tatischefi
to find a wa y to make exhibition prints.
His son, Pierre,
was born on July 4, 1949.
A little left.
This way. A little more.
Tati refuses to make a sequel
featuring the postman.
Three years after Jour de féte's release,
he shoots Monsieur Hulot's Holiday,
which is a smash hit in 1953
and wins the Prix Louis Delluc and the Prix
de Ia Critique Internationale at Cannes.
Monsieur. ...?
What?
Allow me.
- Hulot.
H-U-L-O-T.
Your pipe.
In 1956, before his father's death
on November 23,
he starts a production company,
Specta Films,
and shoots Mon oncle.
Mon omfle, passed over
for the Palme d 'Or at Cannes in 1958,
receives the Special Jury Prize
before receiving the ultimate award,
the Oscar
for Best Foreign Language Film,
the following year
in Hollywood.
Tati there asks to meet
Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd,
Mack Sennet, and Stan Laurel.
/n 1.961, while finishing
the script for The Illusionist,
which would never be made,
Tatf is asked by Bruno Coquatrfx
to put on a show at the Olympia.
Come on, let's go!
Gentlemen, on my command.
Attention!
Mount your cycles.
One, two.
Prepare for right turn... right!
Good. Left turn... left!
Very good.
You're pedaling
at normal speed for a letter.
Attention, gentlemen.
Telegram!
From April t0 June,
he stages Jour de féte é l'Olympia,
a variety show
for which he had part of Jour de féte
colorized by his friend
Paul Grimault.
In 1964, a new colorized version
of Jour de fiéte is released,
and the sets for playtime
are built in Join ville.
Toward the end
of shooting in 1967,
Tati writes and stars in
(Bouts du so“,
a mid-length feature
directed by Nicolas Ribowski.
Gentlemen, if you'll kindly
return to your seats,
you'll find on page 88,
paragraph two,
angling-
Gentlemen,
let's see how it's done.
In December of 1967...
PlayTime is released
at the Empire
to mixed reviews.
Although praised by the Nouvel
Observateur and Cahiers du cinéma,
in Combats,
Henri Chap/er criticizes it as
“a silly, pretentious allegory
that isn't even funny."
No, no, and no!
This can't continue.
Box office is decent,
but not enough to recoup costs.
Tati is forced
to release shorter versions
until runtime
is under two hours.
Franyois Ede, Macha Makeieff,
and Jéréme Deschamps
finally restore
the original version in 2002.
On November 16, 1969,
Tatfs mother dies, and he must
auction off his family home.
Tati shoots a few commercials.
He then sets off
for France, Belgium, and Holland
to make Trafic,
which was quietly released
in April 1971.
In 1973,
Swedish TV asks him
to pay homage
to the circus and variety shows.
His own routines
are included in Parade,
his last film.
With Jacques Lagrange, he begins
writing an ambitious new project
entitled Confusion.
But debts incurred by playtime
catch up with him,
and in 1974
his films are seized,
and his health begins to decline.
In 1977, Tatfs royalties
and films are bought
by Nina Mo/lesena Del Monaco.
With a group 0f shareholders,
he creates Panoramic Films...
allowing Tati to recover
46% of his royalties.
At the Cesar
awards ceremony in 1.977,
Tatf makes a stirring appeal
for the support of short films.
If you want
to reward short films,
I ask the Centre national
de la cinématographie,
distributors,
and theater operators -
I beg you,
support short films
and allow young filmmakers
to express themselves.
Without short films,
we'd never have had
Chaplin, or Keaton, or Fellini.
Or René Clément.
Nobody.
Please, take 1% of the profit
from your ice cream bars
and give young people
a chance to express themselves.
A documentary project called
Forza Basfia,
on the Bastia vs. Eindhoven
European Soccer Cup final,
falls apart in 1978.
Sophie Tatischeff will finish it
in 2000.
In 1.980, Tat};
at his daughter's request,
tells his life story t0 Jean L 'H0"te,
cowriter 0f Mon oncle.
The autobiography remains
unfinished and unpublished.
- You're forgetting something.
- What?
Shoe size.
Right into the door - barn!
In 7.982, he makes it a point of honor
to finish, with Lagrange,
the script for Confusion...
but he dies on November 4
of a pulmonary embolism.
Class is dismissed.
An extraordinary mime
who often said
“a comic actors greatest skill
lies in his footwork, ”
Jacques Tati remains
one of the great French directors,
one of the rare few who managed,
in only six films,
to fully express his dream.
- Yes, turn it on.
Like every night
at this same time, it's...
Professor Platov's TV Hour!
Tonight, the life and work
of Jacques Tati.
Jacques Tatischefif a.k.a. Tat/j was born
in Le Pecq, near Saint-Germain-en-La ye,
on October 9, 1907.
His paternal grandfather,
Dimitri Tatischeff,
was a military attache
for the Russian embassy in France.
His maternal grandfather,
Mr. Van Hoof,
was a Dutch picture framer
living in Paris.
Jacques was the second child
of Claire Van Hoof
and Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff,
who took over his father-in-laws
framing business.
He grew up at L Ermitage, the family
home in Saint-Germain-en-La ye.
Although his upbringing
gave him an appreciation for art,
Tati never had a master
nor a mentor.
His attraction for cinema came primarily
through his body and through play.
At 17, on the beach at Saint-Tropez,
he gives his first mime performance,
a soccer match
as seen by a goalie -
which he'll revisit 49 years later,
along with three other sketches,
in his last film, Parade.
Two years later,
his academic career less than bright,
he begins apprenticing
in his father's workshop.
His future is clear:
He'll follow in his father's
and grandfather's footsteps
and enter the framing business.
But 1928 marks the start of two
experiences that shaped him in his youth:
his military service
in the 16th Dragoon,
the Calvary Regiment
of Saint- Germafn-en-L a ye,
and playing second row for
the Racing Club de France rugby team,
where he was
the post-match entertainment,
imitating the players, spectators,
and referee of the match
just played.
In the military,
he learns schoolboy jokes
and rebellion against authority.
As a result, in 1931,
he leaves home
and the family business
to take the stage with a routine
called Sflent Sport
at the annual gala
of the Racing Club de France.
In 1932,
Tati tries his hand at cinema,
writing and starring in
Oscar, champion de tennis,
which was probably never finished
and is now lost.
He tries again two years later with
On demande une brute,
written with Alfred Sauvy,
captain of the Racing Club de France
and later a renowned economist.
Tati plays the lead,
supported by the clown Rhum,
whom he rejoins the f0//owing year
in Gai dimanche,
directed by Jacques Berr
instead of Charles Barrois.
Step right up.
Enjoy this fine weather.
Just 35 francs a ride.
A visit to the chéteaux,
a pleasant drive,
an outdoor lunch,
and the local attractions,
all for a set price of...
Thirty-five francs.
Step right up.
But the stage is where he triumphs:
at the Ritz in 1934
in a gala finale that includes
Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett,
at Théétre Michel in 1.935 where Silent
Sport becomes Sporting Impressions,
and in 1936 at the ABC music hall
with the same show.
“Henceforth, "
writes Colette in Le JoumaL
“no party or artistic acrobatic show
would be complete
without this surprising artist
who's created something new
thatS part sport, part dance,
part satire, part tableau vivant.
Jacques Tab}
both horse and rider,
brings a fabulous beast to life
for Parisian audiences:
the centaur. ”
In 1936 he also writes
and stars in his first “real” film:
Soigne ton gauche,
directed by Rene Clement
long before The Battle of the Rails,
Forbidden Games, or Purple Noon.
After his triumphant tour
of European stages in 1937,
he writes, stars in, and even directs
Retour é la terre,
which was also lost,
probably unfinished.
He takes refuge,
probably in 1943, in Marembert,
near Sainte-Sévére-sur-Indre -
where Jour de fiéte
would one day be shot -
after he's drafted for a few months
in Cambrai in 1939.
On May 25, 1944,
he marries Micheline Winter
seen here in the light-colored dress in
L'Ecole des facteurs.
In 1946, he appears in Claude
Autant-Lara 's SyMe and the Phantom,
and very briefly in
Devil in the Flesh.
On October 23
his daughter Sophie is born.
From May to November 1947,
he shoots Jour de fete with two cameras:
one for color,
another for black and white.
But Jour de fiéte wouldn't find
a distributor until 1949.
The black-ahd-white version
was a smash hit upon its release
and won
the Grand prix du cinéma frangais.
The color version
would have to wait until 1994
for Frangois Ede and Sophie Tatischefi
to find a wa y to make exhibition prints.
His son, Pierre,
was born on July 4, 1949.
A little left.
This way. A little more.
Tati refuses to make a sequel
featuring the postman.
Three years after Jour de féte's release,
he shoots Monsieur Hulot's Holiday,
which is a smash hit in 1953
and wins the Prix Louis Delluc and the Prix
de Ia Critique Internationale at Cannes.
Monsieur. ...?
What?
Allow me.
- Hulot.
H-U-L-O-T.
Your pipe.
In 1956, before his father's death
on November 23,
he starts a production company,
Specta Films,
and shoots Mon oncle.
Mon omfle, passed over
for the Palme d 'Or at Cannes in 1958,
receives the Special Jury Prize
before receiving the ultimate award,
the Oscar
for Best Foreign Language Film,
the following year
in Hollywood.
Tati there asks to meet
Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd,
Mack Sennet, and Stan Laurel.
/n 1.961, while finishing
the script for The Illusionist,
which would never be made,
Tatf is asked by Bruno Coquatrfx
to put on a show at the Olympia.
Come on, let's go!
Gentlemen, on my command.
Attention!
Mount your cycles.
One, two.
Prepare for right turn... right!
Good. Left turn... left!
Very good.
You're pedaling
at normal speed for a letter.
Attention, gentlemen.
Telegram!
From April t0 June,
he stages Jour de féte é l'Olympia,
a variety show
for which he had part of Jour de féte
colorized by his friend
Paul Grimault.
In 1964, a new colorized version
of Jour de fiéte is released,
and the sets for playtime
are built in Join ville.
Toward the end
of shooting in 1967,
Tati writes and stars in
(Bouts du so“,
a mid-length feature
directed by Nicolas Ribowski.
Gentlemen, if you'll kindly
return to your seats,
you'll find on page 88,
paragraph two,
angling-
Gentlemen,
let's see how it's done.
In December of 1967...
PlayTime is released
at the Empire
to mixed reviews.
Although praised by the Nouvel
Observateur and Cahiers du cinéma,
in Combats,
Henri Chap/er criticizes it as
“a silly, pretentious allegory
that isn't even funny."
No, no, and no!
This can't continue.
Box office is decent,
but not enough to recoup costs.
Tati is forced
to release shorter versions
until runtime
is under two hours.
Franyois Ede, Macha Makeieff,
and Jéréme Deschamps
finally restore
the original version in 2002.
On November 16, 1969,
Tatfs mother dies, and he must
auction off his family home.
Tati shoots a few commercials.
He then sets off
for France, Belgium, and Holland
to make Trafic,
which was quietly released
in April 1971.
In 1973,
Swedish TV asks him
to pay homage
to the circus and variety shows.
His own routines
are included in Parade,
his last film.
With Jacques Lagrange, he begins
writing an ambitious new project
entitled Confusion.
But debts incurred by playtime
catch up with him,
and in 1974
his films are seized,
and his health begins to decline.
In 1977, Tatfs royalties
and films are bought
by Nina Mo/lesena Del Monaco.
With a group 0f shareholders,
he creates Panoramic Films...
allowing Tati to recover
46% of his royalties.
At the Cesar
awards ceremony in 1.977,
Tatf makes a stirring appeal
for the support of short films.
If you want
to reward short films,
I ask the Centre national
de la cinématographie,
distributors,
and theater operators -
I beg you,
support short films
and allow young filmmakers
to express themselves.
Without short films,
we'd never have had
Chaplin, or Keaton, or Fellini.
Or René Clément.
Nobody.
Please, take 1% of the profit
from your ice cream bars
and give young people
a chance to express themselves.
A documentary project called
Forza Basfia,
on the Bastia vs. Eindhoven
European Soccer Cup final,
falls apart in 1978.
Sophie Tatischeff will finish it
in 2000.
In 1.980, Tat};
at his daughter's request,
tells his life story t0 Jean L 'H0"te,
cowriter 0f Mon oncle.
The autobiography remains
unfinished and unpublished.
- You're forgetting something.
- What?
Shoe size.
Right into the door - barn!
In 7.982, he makes it a point of honor
to finish, with Lagrange,
the script for Confusion...
but he dies on November 4
of a pulmonary embolism.
Class is dismissed.
An extraordinary mime
who often said
“a comic actors greatest skill
lies in his footwork, ”
Jacques Tati remains
one of the great French directors,
one of the rare few who managed,
in only six films,
to fully express his dream.