Tati, Jacques

(1907-1982)

   Actor and director. Jacques Tati was born Jacques Tatischeff in Le Pecq. He studied the arts while also practicing boxing, rugby, and tennis. He worked in cabarets and music halls where he used his athletic talent to imitate famous sports players. He entered the cinema as a screenwriter and actor in Jacques Forrester's Oscar, champion de tennis (1932). He later scripted and acted in Charles Barrois's On demande une brute (1934), Jacques Berr's Gai dimanche (1935), and René Clement's Soigne ta gauche (1936) and Retour à la terre (1938). After World War II, he acted in Claude Autant-Lara's Sylvie et Le fantôme (1946) and Le diable au corps (1946).

   Tati directed his first film, the short comedy L'École des facteurs, in 1947. It was also the inspiration for his first feature film, Jour de fête (1949), which was the top-selling French film in France in 1949. The film was nominated for best script at the Venice Film Festival. Tati's next films were Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953), which won the Prix Louis-Delluc and received an Oscar nomination, and Mon oncle (1958). Like Jour de fête, these comedies portray France's transformation into a modern industrial state. The character Monsieur Hulot, played by Tati himself, reemerged in his later films.

   Tati's fourth film, Playtime (1967), was not as successful as the previous films but has been lauded by critics as a precursor to post-modern filmmaking and as a work of cinematic genius. Tati's last completed films were Trafic (1971) and Parade (1974). Tati is sometimes seen as an example of what François Truffaut dubbed le cinéma de papa, but he is best known for his meticulous directing, his revival of silent comedy, his creative use of sound, his brilliant comic acting, and his humorous portrayals of the social effects of modern mechanical gadgets. The intense preparation he spent on his films resulted in a career that was not prolific but much admired and widely successful.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins