---
title: "PlayTime (1967) review"
description: "Spent the first 20 minutes convinced my speakers were broken, only to realize Tati intentionally mixed all dialogue to sound like it’s coming from three..."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/playtime/
---

![A still from PlayTime (1967)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/playtime/backdrop.webp)

# PlayTime (1967)

Sep 28, 2025 | 2 min read | Rated 3.5 out of 5 | Dir. Jacques Tati

Spent the first 20 minutes convinced my speakers were broken, only to realize Tati intentionally mixed all dialogue to sound like it’s coming from three rooms away through a fish tank. Bold choice.

This film is what happens when someone with unlimited money and zero regard for human sanity decides to build an entire fake city just to make jokes about glass doors. The logistics alone made me anxious: watching hundreds of extras navigate those labyrinthine sets while Tati presumably stands behind the camera with a megaphone whispering “More confused! Look MORE confused!”

The office tour opening had me hooked with its ballet of corporate absurdity, then the middle section hit and I briefly considered that maybe I was the one trapped in a modernist nightmare. Just when I thought I’d lost the plot entirely (was there a plot?), that restaurant scene arrives like a slapstick fever dream where civilization slowly collapses one broken floor tile at a time. Pure chaos. Magnificent.

I get it: modernity is a house of cards, capitalism reduces us to automatons, and apparently every building in Paris is 90% glass and 10% confusion. The whole thing feels held together by the cinematic equivalent of toothpicks and prayer, which is presumably also Tati’s commentary on modern society, or possibly just how they kept those massive sets from collapsing.

Appreciate the craft, respect the audacity, probably won’t watch again unless I need to remind myself what pure determination looks like. Sometimes a film can be both a masterpiece and something you experience exactly once, like climbing Everest or eating gas station sushi.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/playtime/)

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