Rating: 1/2
by Derek Smith 5/8/07

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After the vast scope of Playtime, Jacques Tati scales back his critique of the modern world in Trafic to focus specifically on the congestion of modern living as it relates to cars.  It even has a discernable plotline as the now employed Hulot travels to Amsterdam with two co-workers – the bumbling driver, Marcel (Marcel Franval), and the gorgeous yet flighty American public relations rep, Maria (Maria Kimberly) – to show their new, ultramodern camper car at an international car show in Amsterdam.  In typical Tati fashion, the trio encounters nothing but trouble on their way, from breakdowns and accidents to an unwanted side trip to the police station.  Unlike Playtime, however, Tati allows his cynicism to come to forefront a bit more often and his bizarre and charmingly satiric vision of city life has now sunk into almost complete anarchy.  Tati’s heart is in the same place, finding elements of comedy in everyone and everything on screen, but the sense of joy behind the absurdity of modernity has begun to wither away.  Where Tati once directed us to see beauty in motion in the former, despite it being constantly undermined by modern gadgets and architecture, Trafic essentially sees the world turning into one huge traffic jam.  Tati’s heart is in the same place, finding elements of comedy in everyone and everything on screen, but the sense of joy behind the absurdity of modernity has begun to wither away.  Where Tati once directed us to see beauty in motion in the former, despite it being constantly undermined by modern gadgets and architecture, Trafic essentially sees the world turning into one huge traffic jam.

This sense of disorder and loss of freedom, however, doesn’t prevent Tati from having quite a bit of fun throughout the film.  Much like Hulot, who emulates much of what he sees around him, Tati focuses on repetitions and the similarities in the actions of everyone in the film.  Windshield wipers move in unison while drivers share similar facial ticks or attempt to pick their nose without being seen.  It’s endearing and amusing, but also less playful than his modernist critique in Playtime.  The conformity of behavior and movement, which Tati shows as a sign of the loss of individuality in consumer culture, but where he previously found a communal spirit within it, he now sees humanity on the brink of chaos.

The trio’s inability to get to the car show is related not just to a complete reliance on imperfect technology, but also to mankind’s inability to fully adapt to it.  Every possible convenience is included in their camper car, but ultimately they only serve to keep them in the police station longer as the policemen check out each separate gadget.  The overabundance of technology and, obviously, cars have left the world so cluttered that moving about smoothly in Trafic is a near impossibility.  The merry-go-round of cars in Playtime’s finale is replaced with a huge, multi-car accident where each car either falls apart or seemingly acts with a mind of its own and the owners dutifully chase after various car parts as a dog would a bone.  Again, it’s an hysterical scene but it also shows man as hopeless slaves to their own possessions.  A friend said, half-jokingly, this is Tati’s Week End and while it’s certainly not that vitriolic and aggressive, it does find Tati taking a much harsher view of modern culture than in the past.  As dark as I’ve made the film sound, it’s still quite delightful and, at times, even lighthearted.  Looking back to M. Hulot’s Holiday, one can trace Tati’s relationship of the encroaching dominance of technology and the way it changes individual’s relationships to one another and their surrounding environments.  Even though he seems to mourn the loss of a more simple way of life, he still can’t help but find moments of bliss and true compassion even when the world’s going to hell in a hand basket.