Jacques Tati - 1949
Apart from a bit of extra dialogue, the narration figure, and maybe a slightly closer, faster cut mis-en-scene, all the Tati brilliance is in place. The use of far and near exploited in the sound track, animal (or record, memorably) noises used diagetically, but offscreen to set off the action for jokes and so on.
The frame is used pretty widely, not hugely so (there weren't hidden jokes I could see). Certainly far and near are used. The camera is happy to often pan and on occassion track, or move to a position where to best have a comical view on the action.
The colour version, which I saw here, uses huge contrasts; bottomless black clothes and bright, bright sunlight. It seems set to a high contrast, so a lot of the frame is burnt out, faces are very white. It may be the hard direct sunlight filled in. I don't want to say 'washed out', because it's too vivid, too hot for that.
Tati is of course marvellous, incredibly gawky on the bicycle, stiff-legged. The speed and mechanisation of man is here, as is the idea of a rural life that is loved but not averse to mockery. The narrative is pretty much incidents, often explained by the old hag, but a story does develop, or rather a pretext for five minute sequences with the postman. Tati is innovative, exciting, and deeply fun to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment