Light Show #1: Playtime

A masterpiece that towers above them all, Jacques Tati’s Playtime is a film which rejects narrative in an attempt to emulate the sights, sounds and smells of a modern metropolis. It's an immersive VR experience 50 years before VR existed.

In this stunning, panoramic opus, Tati's trademark character—the pipe-smoking greenhorn M. Hulot—arrives in a Paris that’s been enmeshed with glass and steel, clean lines and cold hearts. It's a lament for the partitions we build for ourselves in the name of progress, and the emotions we forget to use while disconnected from the conclusive bustle of life. See it and swoon at a handmade epic like no other.

Playtime, dir. Jacques Tati, France 1967, 35mm, 124 mins

Screening as part of Light Show #1 – a celebration of celluloid magic curated by MUBI, ICA and Little White Lies