For this analysis, I have chosen a segment from Jaques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime. The film is considered to be Tati’s most daring product, and it is known for its subtle and complex visual presentation which is regarded by critics as a great example of mise en scene and aesthetics. The following scene I have decided to analyse occurs near the beginning of the film, and serves as the introduction to the character of Monsieur Hulot played by Tati himself.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw01C7PfVqczLXY4WjlfczNVd3c
We begin with a wide ‘master’ shot from outside an office building. Hulot enters the shot from the bottom left corner of the frame, and the camera tracks in as we follow Hulot as he enters the door. In the next cut, the camera has moved 180 degrees across. We now observe Hulot in a wide shot from inside the office building showing his front side as he looks around the room and sits down according to the security guard’s directions.
In the next shot, the camera moves again to the opposite side of the room, so that it is from a similar perspective as the first shot. It shows a wide two-shot of Hulot sitting and the guard fiddling with a control board. This shot is filmed from quite an unconventional angle, as the security guard is in the foreground of the frame, largely blocking Hulot sitting in the background. However, this setup gives the frame a sense of depth of field, and places the audience in a position that emphasises Hulot’s curiosity as we can see him trying to peek past the guard’s shoulders to see what he is doing.
Next, we switch to a long shot where the frame is filled with information. The two characters are shown conversing on the far left side of the screen, and a corridor dominates the right side of the frame. After a beat, we see a man appear. The shot is still as he walks down the entire long stretch of corridor, again giving the shot a dynamic sense of space. As the man walks towards the front the frame, we can observe all three characters conversing in the foreground. Instead of cutting to a mid three-shot or using a shot-reverse shot system to cover the dialogue, Tati chooses to remain in the wide shot. By doing this, Tati focuses more on the placing of characters within the space as well as their physical actions instead of the dialogue which is heard as a mere mumble.
In the next section, the camera moves outside the building. In an extreme wide shot, we observe Hulot from outside the glass doors as he paces around the waiting room. From this angle, it is as if the audience is observing him from a distance like you would for animals behind enclosures in a zoo. This emphasises the character’s odd personality and curious behaviour. Similarly, the rest of the scene consists of wide shots from a variety of angles both inside and outside the building following Hulot as he explores around the room, playing with various pieces of furniture. The shots showing Hulot’s whole body emphasise the subtle physical comedy Tati presents.
When examined as a whole, it’s interesting to note that the entire scene is covered with wide shots. We see the entire environment of complex mise en scene, and the characters seem like they are not the focus, but almost just another prop within the shots. It is unusual that Tati does not switch to closer of the characters even when they are speaking to each other or exchanges are being made. In addition, apart from a few slight tracking movements, the majority of the scene is shot from a still perspective. Instead, Tati allows the characters to move boldly across the frame, creating a dynamic and clearly multidimensional representation of space. Furthermore, the length of the shots are almost excruciatingly long, with very few cuts happening every twenty to thirty seconds. The stillness of the frames combined with the long length makes it seem like time is elongated. All of these elements, when combined, give the scene and stilted and awkward feel. Considering the notion of decoupage, I think that these choices are what Luis Bunuel describes as segmentation; the combination of shot choices and placement gives the scene its unique spacial and temporal rhythm, making it feel cinematic.
