April 12 – 20, 2024

 

Tribute to Jacques Tati

Play Time

Jacques Tati
103’ / 1967
France

LEMESOS
Wednesday 13.04 @ 18:00
NICOSIA
Saturday 09.04 @ 18:00

Play Time is Jacques Tati’s fourth major film, and is generally considered to be his most daring. In Play Time, Tati again plays Monsieur Hulot, intermittently alternating between central and supporting roles.
In the film, Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but he gets lost in the maze of modern architecture filled with the latest technical gadgets. Caught in the tourist invasion, Hulot roams around Paris with a group of American tourists, causing chaos in his usual manner.

Awards
Award for Best European Film – Bodil Awards, Denmark, 1969

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/oS6pwQqSY70

Mon Oncle

Jacques Tati
117’ / 1958
France

LEMESOS
Sunday 10.04 @ 18:00
NICOSIA
Wednesday 13.04 @ 18:00

Mon Oncle was the first of Tati’s films to be released in colour. It centers on the socially awkward yet lovable character of Monsieur Hulot and his quixotic struggle with postwar France’s infatuation with modern architecture, mechanical efficiency and American-style consumerism. M. Hulot (Jacques Tati) is the day-dreaming, impractical, and adored uncle of young Gérard (nine years old), who lives with his materialistic parents in an ultra-modern geometric house and garden (Villa Arpel) in a new suburb of Paris. Gérard’s parents, M. and Mme. Arpel, are firmly entrenched in a machine-like existence of work, fixed gender roles, and the acquisition of status through possessions and conspicuous display.

Awards
Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film – Academy Awards, 1959
Jury Special Prize – Cannes Film Festival, 1958
Nominated for the Palme d’Or Award – Cannes Film Festival, 1958
NYFCC Award for Best Foreign Language Film – New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 1958
Critics Award for Best Film – French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, 1959

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/LE9t98Gox60

Les Vacances de M. Hulot / Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

Jacques Tati

114’ / 1953
France

LEMESOS
Saturday 09.04 @ 18:00
NICOSIA
Saturday 16.04 @ 18:00

Les vacances de M. Hulot follows the misadventures of lovable, gauche Frenchman, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati himself) as he spends the obligatory August vacation at a beach resort. The film affectionately lampoons several hidebound elements of French political and economic classes, and also gently mocks the confidence of postwar western society in the primacy of work over leisure and the value of complex technology over simple pleasures, themes that would resurface in his later films.

Awards
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Oscar Nominee – Academy Awards, 1956
Nominated for the Grand Prize of the Festival – Cannes Film Festival, 1953
Prix Louis Delluc Festival, France, 1953

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ekTamAQ6b_E

The Illusionist

Sylvain Chomet

80’ / 2010
France, United Kingdom

LEMESOS
Sunday 17.04 @ 20:00
NICOSIA
Sunday 10.04 @ 18:00

From the director of The Triplets Of Belleville comes a film of grace and unique beauty. Working from a never-produced script written by Jacques Tati for his daughter, Chomet brings his meticulous brand of hand-drawn animation to this story of a magician pushed aside by rock and roll who finds one young girl who still appreciates his magic. This bittersweet homage to the fading music-hall tradition travels from Paris to the rural Scotland and finally Edinburgh to show how magic can flourish in the most unexpected places and circumstances.

Awards
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year Film Oscar Nominee – Academy Awards, 2011
Best Animated Film Award – European Film Awards, 2010
Nominated British Independent Film Award – British Independent Film Awards, 2010
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year Film Nominee – Golden Globe Awards, 2011
NYFCC Award for Best Animated Film – New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 2011

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xrwh0rOJ0DI