Trafic

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Movie
German title Trafic - Tati in rush hour traffic
Original title Trafic
Country of production France , Netherlands , Belgium
original language French , Dutch , English
Publishing year 1971
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jacques Tati
script Jacques Tati,
Jacques Lagrange ,
Bert Haanstra
production Robert Dorfmann
music Charles Dumont
camera Bert Haanstra ,
Andréas Winding ,
Lasse Hallström ,
Karl Haskel
cut Sophie Tatischeff ,
Maurice Laumain
occupation

Trafic is a French comedy film that premiered in Paris in 1971. It is the fifth and last full-length feature film by Jacques Tati and was originally also shown in Germany under the title Tati in rush hour traffic . This film was the last time Tati's popular character, Monsieur Hulot, appeared. “Trafic” is the French word for traffic; road traffic is specifically meant here.

action

The individual stations in the assembly of a car are shown - from pressing the body sheet to parking the finished car. Literally not everything goes smoothly.

The International Auto Show is to take place in Amsterdam. An exhibition hall is divided into several areas and those responsible determine the places for the various stands. The Paris car factory ALTRA also wants to present its new camper at this fair. The company's employees load the prototype of the camping vehicle onto a truck. In addition, a station wagon transports the decorative parts for the exhibition stand, the sales manager and Monsieur Hulot, an ALTRA employee. The young Maria, the company's first public relations employee, drives her Shih Tzu named Piton in her own convertible.

After just a few minutes, the drive on the motorway is interrupted because the truck has a flat tire. Monsieur Hulot gets out to help the driver Marcel change tires; He sends the station wagon on. Later the petrol runs out and the truck stops again. Monsieur Hulot finds a gas station in a small village and returns to the truck with a full canister. Maria drives on in a hurry, but first the truck has to refuel. As was customary back then, giveaways are distributed at the gas station. Every customer receives a plaster copy of a classical bust; also the ALTRA team. The truck torments itself through a traffic jam. You can see the freebies lying on the hat rack in many of the cars. The camera observes the behavior of the inmates: most of them scratch their noses or pick their noses. Shortly afterwards, the truck's clutch failed, probably due to the constant starting and braking in a traffic jam. Hulot is looking for a workshop and gives the colleague, who has already arrived in Amsterdam with the station wagon, a phone call that they are stuck in Belgium because of a breakdown. The auto mechanic watches the start of Apollo 11 on television .

Meanwhile in Amsterdam: The trade fair boss is interviewed for the radio. The ALTRA stand is set up. The other exhibitors polish their models one last time. Maria arrives. When she hears about the breakdown and cannot call anyone in the garage from which Hulot called, she drives back to her colleagues.

The truck is towed into the workshop. The opening of the fair in Amsterdam is broadcast on the radio; you can also hear the broadcast in the workshop. The truck can move on shortly afterwards. The truck quickly gets into a traffic jam again. This time the camera captures the inmates yawning louder; Hulot and Marcel are also among them. Maria meets the two of them and urges them to hurry. Under her leadership, the two cars pass the border with the Netherlands without stopping. Customs therefore set off a search: the vehicles are stopped by a motorcycle patrol and taken to a police station.

In Amsterdam the trade fair is now in full swing: the trade fair sellers are showing visitors the new models. Whether vendor or visitor, everyone approaches the car in the same way: doors open and close; Opening and closing trunk; Open and close the bonnet.

Hulot and Marcel are similarly busy at the station: they had to unload the camper and bring it to the officers. The front bumper becomes a pull-out heating element for the radiator grille that can be folded down as a grill grate, two chairs can be swiveled out of the rear bumper and a razor built into the horn button can be pulled out of the steering wheel hub. Finally, at the push of a button, the car is extended so that two adults can sleep comfortably in it. Of course there is also a television that shows a report about the moon landing. The tour is abruptly interrupted by an alarm. The officers move out and the confiscated vehicles have to stay on duty overnight.

The next morning the ALTRA team can finally continue the journey. Maria drives again in a hurry and speeds through an intersection controlled by a police officer. He turns and waves his arms violently to regain his balance. This triggers a pile-up. The drivers of the damaged cars get out and stretch. Then they look for parts that have fallen off and exchange them with one another. The left front fender of the camper was damaged by the impact. Maria and Marcel therefore go to a workshop again. The mechanic promises to repair the damage to the camper the next morning and puts the two of them in the boat workshop overnight. Hulot is now bringing home an elderly gentleman who was slightly injured in the accident. Hulot wants to get his wife, but the bell doesn't work. Throwing stones doesn't work either. As he tries to climb up the facade, he tears the tall ivy down on it. The wife then appears and brings her husband into the house. Hulot tries in vain to repair the damage.

In Amsterdam, the ALTRA stand is being dismantled by other exhibitors and neighboring companies are occupying the space with their vehicles.

The mechanic interrupts the repair of the camper to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing on television with Hulot and Marcel. Finally the camper is recharged and the ALTRA team continues the journey. Again pictures of very different vehicle occupants can be seen. The truck finally arrives in Amsterdam.

The three come too late, the fair has already ended. Maria had not noted the appointments correctly (9th instead of 6th). While the other exhibitors are packing up, the director of ALTRA complains about the bill: Since the stand was not used until the end, the price has to be reduced by 300,000 francs . The fair director refuses to have the invoice changed for ALTRA. The director mistakenly believes that Hulot - who is wandering the hall and looking at the other models - is making fun of the discussion and fires him, while it was the window cleaner who happily whistled in front of him. Hulot and Maria leave together.

Outside, Marcel shows the caravan to the many interested passers-by and eagerly distributes brochures. Hulot and Maria walk across the parking lot in front of the exhibition grounds to the subway. As it starts to rain, Hulot opens his umbrella. At the entrance to the subway station, he says goodbye to Maria and her dog Piton and goes down the stairs. When numerous passers-by with opened umbrellas approach him on the stairs, the umbrella is torn from his hand and carried up the other umbrellas. When Hulot runs up again to catch his umbrella, he finds himself facing Maria standing in the rain. The two of them continue their way across the parking lot.

The traffic jams on the street next to the parking lot. The windshield wipers are running because of the rain. Many of them reflect the behavior of the inmates. Pedestrians find it difficult to find their way between the masses of cars.

History of origin

Although Tati actually didn't want to make a film with the character of Monsieur Hulot anymore, he was forced to do so: After completing the extremely expensive filming of Playtime , Tati was practically broke. He couldn't produce his new film alone with his company Specta-Films and had to look for financially strong partners. However, nobody would have been willing to fund a film without the Hulot.

In June 1968 Tati and the Dutch documentary filmmaker Bert Haanstra drafted a contract with the aim of shooting a comedy film in color. The working title of the film should be "Hulot Production No 5". It was also agreed that a substantial part of the film would be shot in the Netherlands. A Dutch film fund would have contributed US $ 150,000 to the costs.

However, there was no script yet. Haanstra therefore had a comic artist make sketches of comic events in traffic, from which he and Tati selected several as templates for the film scenes. From the beginning, “Trafic” was not conceived as a narrative, but as a sequence of images. Haanstra had received permission to film on the Amsterdam exhibition center. In the spring of 1969 he filmed the preparations for the car show and drivers on the streets of Amsterdam.

Tati had meanwhile made contact with Swedish television. For 200,000 US dollars, the Swedes were allowed to make a documentary about the shooting of "Trafic". In addition, Tati succeeded in the summer of 1969 in persuading the American banker Robert Dorfman to invest in the film.

However, none of this money reached the Netherlands. Haanstra initially paid for the filming in Amsterdam and others in the DAF car factory out of pocket. In June 1969 Tati Haanstra sent a finished contract. But Haanstra's lawyers advised against the signature, since otherwise he would have to bear the majority of the financial risk. Haanstra tried several times in vain to contact Tati in the following weeks. Finally, in August 1969, he declared the collaboration over.

In the summer of 1970 Tati shot the sequences with Andreas Winding on the various motorways and in the Belgian workshop. He was able to do this because he was now able to bring other financiers on board.

In March 1971 the missing scenes were to be filmed in Amsterdam. When the Swedish television staff arrived, Tati informed them that he had exceeded his budget and the cameraman had therefore been ordered back to Paris. Therefore, the next scenes were shot by the Swedish cameraman Lasse Hallström while his colleague Karl Haskel carried out the shooting for the documentary. Since Winding had brought his equipment with him, the Swedes also provided cameras and film material for the game scenes. After two days, Tati and Hallström had a difference of opinion and Tati fired the Swede. So on the last day of shooting, Haskel was the cameraman for “Trafic”.

characters

Unlike in the previous films, Hulot is not an idler here, but an employee of a company. He is referred to by some authors as the designer of the ALTRA, although that is not necessarily apparent from the film. Marcel introduces him to the police as the designer of the camping car. In fact, he is just standing at a drawing board and trying to frame a drawing of the camping vehicle with straight lines (which he does not succeed in because someone keeps rushing into his office and scares him).

Otherwise, Hulot remains the man with the trench coat, hat, striped socks and umbrella in this film. The latter is used for the first time in this film.

Maria is a confident dominant woman, making it the first of its kind in a Tati film. She not only uses her convertible as a means of transport, but also as a wardrobe and changing room. She makes sure that she is always dressed appropriately for the situation. So she wears z. B. in a truck driver's bar sweater and flat cap and at the police station a white coat that resembles the uniforms of the police. While she is overzealous at the beginning, she loosens up as the action progresses and ends up laughing at her own mistake.

Besides these two main characters, the other ALTRA employees and most of the rest of the people remain pale. Only the Belgian mechanic presents himself in an original way, casually throwing aside all objects in his way.

Stylistic devices

In Tati's films, the human mind comes into conflict with the mechanization of modern life. In “Trafic” too, nature and technology, man and the world he has created, the old and the new, face each other. The pictures from the Amsterdam exhibition are cut between the pictures of car repair shops and junk yards. In the workshops, the mechanics watch reports on the moon landing on television. In general, contrasts make up an essential part of “Trafic”. The real scenes from the moon landing and from Amsterdam are on an equal footing with the scenes played. The latter can only be distinguished from the real scenes if you know the story of how the film came about.

A key issue for Tati is always the contrast between nature and technology. While these are clearly opposed to one another in Tati's earlier works, in “Trafic” they sometimes seem to merge; people and their cars are similar. The vehicles involved in the accident move in their own way and make different noises. It even seems as if one can infer the feelings of the vehicles from these noises.

"Trafic" takes place in a world that was created for the car and in which people are of secondary importance. Most of them don't get to where they want to be on time. This doesn't just apply to drivers; So the three main characters, those involved in the accident, those waiting at the police station and those waiting in the numerous traffic jams. In the final scene, the pedestrians are also prevented from making rapid progress by the cars.

Tati directs the viewer into the role of the distant observer. He achieves this by almost exclusively using long shots and half-close shots. In “Trafic” there are no close-ups or close-ups of people. Nevertheless, despite all the distance, the people in “Trafic” come closer to the viewer than the people in Playtime .

The cutting sequences also adapt to the content. Hard, rhythmic cuts at the beginning of the car factory and short shots on the highway are replaced by long passages of the idyllic holiday by the river and gentle pans when shooting the choreographic scenes: opening the hood and doors at the fair, the appearance of the two motorcyclists acting at the same time and the accident on the intersection.

The car appears in “Trafic” as a well-groomed status symbol, a promise of speed and functionality; but also as a victim of failing technology and traffic regulations. A recurring motif is waiting in front of gas stations, workshops, clogged streets, barriers. The film lovingly exaggerates this voluntary lack of freedom in the grotesque.

Others

The film premiered in April 1971 at the Gaumont Cinema on the Champs Elysées . The then French Interior Minister Raymond Marcellin was invited.

The camper was designed on the basis of a Renault 4L Trophy . It was exhibited in the Renault showrooms directly opposite the Gaumont cinema in the weeks following the premiere .

“Trafic” is Tati's first film to be set - partly - outside of France. All performers speak their lyrics in their mother tongue, mainly French, Flemish and Dutch. The American Maria Kimberly speaks English and French.

Tati not only played Monsieur Hulot, but also one of the car show planners in the opening sequence.

The little yellow sports car that Maria Kimberly drives in the film is a Siata 850 Spring Spider.

criticism

“Tati's satirical comedy about the strange uses people make of the car entertains with lots of delicious gags and amiable humor. Above all, the film convinces with its poetic clarity and purity, which radiates everything that is important to Jacques Tati: not the great social criticism, but the subtle warning not to allow yourself to be manipulated by the hectic pace and overvaluation of the technical consumer hunt. - Worth seeing from 8. "

- Lexicon of international film

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Bellos: Jacques Tati, his life and art . 1999, ISBN 1-86046-651-6 , p. 293.
  2. ^ David Bellos: Jacques Tati, his life and art . 1999, ISBN 1-86046-651-6 , p. 294.
  3. ^ David Bellos: Jacques Tati, his life and art . 1999, ISBN 1-86046-651-6 , p. 295.
  4. ^ David Bellos: Jacques Tati, his life and art . 1999, ISBN 1-86046-651-6 , p. 299.
  5. ^ David Bellos: Jacques Tati, his life and art . 1999, ISBN 1-86046-651-6 , p. 300 f.
  6. ↑ Brent Maddock: The Films of Jacques Tati . 1984, ISBN 3-922696-13-9 , p. 11.
  7. ↑ Brent Maddock: The Films of Jacques Tati . 1984, ISBN 3-922696-13-9 , p. 126 f.
  8. ↑ James Monaco: Essay in Take One . Volume 3 No. 11 (September 1973), p. 43.
  9. ↑ Brent Maddock: The Films of Jacques Tati . 1984, ISBN 3-922696-13-9 , p. 126.
  10. ^ Klaus Gietinger: Total loss. 2010, ISBN 978-3-938060-47-6 , p. 91.
  11. ↑ Michel Chion: Cahiers du cinéma - Jacques Tati . 1987, ISBN 2-86642-058-6 , p. 26.
  12. ↑ Peter Haberer: Aspects of the comedy in the films of Jacques Tati . 1996, ISBN 3-930258-24-2 , pp. 62 f.
  13. ↑ Peter Haberer: Aspects of the comedy in the films of Jacques Tati . 1996, ISBN 3-930258-24-2 , p. 50.
  14. ↑ a b David Bellos: Jacques Tati, his life and art . 1999, ISBN 1-86046-651-6 , p. 303.
  15. ↑ Brent Maddock: The Films of Jacques Tati . 1984, ISBN 3-922696-13-9 , p. 25.
  16. ^ Trafic. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 29, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used