Playtime (1967 film)

Playtime is a 1967 French and Italian comedy directed by Jacques Tati, following his recurring character Monsieur Hulot and a group of American tourists through a hyper-modern, glass-and-steel version of Paris across six loosely connected sequences. Tati built an enormous custom set, nicknamed Tativille, to house the film and shot it in 70mm with minimal dialogue, relying instead on elaborate visual and sound gags. The production's cost nearly bankrupted Tati and the film was a commercial failure on release, but it is now widely regarded as his finest achievement, ranking 23rd in the 2022 Sight and Sound critics poll.