1968 - 140 minutes - color - stereo

Grand prix de l'académie du cinéma, Paris, 1968.
Médaille d'argent au festival de Moscouw, 1969.
Prix du festival du film de Vienne, 1969.
Oscar du cinéma suédois, Stockholm, 1969.

Playtime is set in a surreal modern world. Highways and buildings have exact the same measurements. Tati switches his preference for the 35 millimeter film for the 70 millimeter version. Advantage of this wide screen format is the greater view.

Tati had the intention of filming on location. When this wasn't possible he gave the order to build a gigantic set by the east Paris in Vincennes.

In Playtime Hulot strands in a office building where he has a meeting. By using long scenes and not a lot of close-up's Tati want to pull the attention to the characters..

By filming each scene several times the project loses lot's of time. Tati gets into great financial problems.

But Playtime causes Tati more disparity. In the 70 millimeter vision is Monsieur Hulot not strong enough en loses his strength. There are not enough cinema's available where they can project the 70 millimeter movie. Playtime turns into a disaster.