Main Cast: Jacques Tati, Maria Kimberly, Marcel Fravel, Honore Bostel
Release Year: 1971
Country: FR/IT
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
The legendary French comedian Jacques Tati returns as his most famous character, the bumbling M. Hulot, in this gentle but pointed satire of 20th Century car culture. In Trafic, Hulot is working as a designer for a major French automotive firm and is struggling to finish his latest project in time for an international auto show in Amsterdam -- a compact recreational vehicle that features everything from an electric razor and a collapsible couch to a built-in barbecue grill. While the car is completed shortly before the show opens, it doesn't run just yet, so Hulot and his mechanic (Tony Knepper) load the car into a truck and with an American public relations officer (Maria Kimberly) in tow, they hit the road for Holland. But what should be a simple trip from Paris to Amsterdam becomes increasingly complicated thanks to flat tires, breakdowns, traffic jams and multi-car pileups, and the well-intentioned M. Hulot does little to make things easier. Trafic began as a collaboration between Tati and Dutch filmmaker Bert Haanstra, but Haanstra dropped out of the project mid-way through production due to disagreements with Tati, and the great comedian finished the project on his own. Trafic proved to be one of Tati's final screen projects; his last theatrically released feature, Parade, was a shot-on-video homage to they heyday of French vaudeville and was primarily devoted to showing off his talents as a mime. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The director's second to last feature, Jacques Tati's Trafic also became the swan song of his popular Mr. Hulot character. Intended as more of a crowd-pleaser after the expensive failure of his Hulot masterwork Playtime (1967), Tati's trench-coated naïf contends with the fallout of car mania as he escorts a fully loaded camper car to an Amsterdam auto show, including a pompous public relations woman, truck problems, traffic pile-ups, an elaborate collision, and road rage. Though not up to par with the prior trio of Hulot films, the character's final satirical confrontation with the modern world's absurdities is still occasionally elevated by such signature Tati-isms as expressively non-natural colors, geometrically astute compositions, witty visual puns, and an array of silly walks. Though Trafic was meant to help Tati recoup his losses from Playtime, it failed to save the filmmaker from bankruptcy. While Tati's filmmaking fate was troubled, however, the always humanistic Hulot got to walk off into a cleansing rainstorm with a beautiful woman on his arm, shielded (of course) by his trusty umbrella. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Tony Knappers - Dutch Garage Proprietor; Francois Maisongrosse - Francois; Franco Ressel; Mario Zanuelli
Credit
Roberto Giandalla - First Assistant Director, Jacques Tati - Director, Jacques Tati - Editor, Sophie Tatischeff - Editor, Maurice Laumain - Editor, Charles Dumont - Composer (Music Score), Bernard Gérard - Musical Direction/Supervision, Marcel Weiss - Cinematographer, Anton VanMunster - Cinematographer, Eduard van der Enden - Cinematographer, Robert Dorfmann - Producer, Alain Curvelier - Sound/Sound Designer, Jacques Tati - Screenwriter, Bert Haanstra - Screenwriter, Jacques Lagrange - Screenwriter
Trafic (Traffic) is a 1971 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. Trafic was the last film to feature Tati's famous character of Monsieur Hulot, and followed the vein of earlier Tati films that lampooned modern society.
Plot
In Trafic, Hulot is a bumbling automobile inventor travelling to an auto exhibition in a gadget-filled recreational vehicle.
DVD release
The film was released by The Criterion Collection on July 15, 2008 in a special edition double-disc set.
