Satire is a television and film genre in the fictional, pseudo-fictional , or semi-fictional category that employs satirical techniques.
70-582: Playtime (stylized as PlayTime and also written as Play Time ) is a 1967 satirical comedy film directed and co-written by Jacques Tati . Tati also stars in the film, reprising the role of Monsieur Hulot from his earlier films Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953) and Mon Oncle (1958). However, Tati grew ambivalent towards playing Hulot as a recurring central role during production, and he appears intermittently in Playtime , alternating between central and supporting roles. Shot on 70 mm film ,
140-589: A "spread") or simply left blank. If a 70 mm film was shown in a Cinerama theatre, the Cinerama sound system was used. From 1976 onwards, many 70 mm prints used Dolby noise reduction on the magnetic tracks but Dolby disapproved of the "spread" and instead re-allocated the 6 available tracks to provide for left, center and right screen channels, left and right surround channels plus a "low-frequency enhancement" channel to give more body to low-frequency bass. This layout came to be known as " 5.1 " (the "point one"
210-444: A 70 mm print, a 1.25× anamorphic projection lens was used to decompress the image to an aspect ratio of 2.76:1, one of the widest ever used in commercial cinema. Due to the high cost of 70 mm film and the expensive projection system and screen required to use the stock, distribution for films using the stock was limited, although this did not always hurt profits. Most 70 mm films were also released on 35 mm film for
280-439: A 70 mm projector added polarization and merged the two images on the screen. The 1971 re-release of Warner Bros. ' House of Wax used the side-by-side StereoVision format and was distributed in both anamorphically squeezed 35 mm and deluxe non-anamorphic 70 mm form. The system was developed by Allan Silliphant and Chris Condon of StereoVision International Inc., which handled all technical and marketing aspects on
350-523: A copycat process known as Dimension 150) were shown in some Cinerama cinemas, which allowed for deeply curved screens. Todd-AO adopted a similar multi-channel magnetic sound system to the one developed for Cinemascope two years earlier, recorded on "stripes" of magnetic oxide deposited on the film. However Todd-AO has six channels instead of the four of Cinemascope and due to the wider stripes and faster film speed provides superior audio quality. Five of these six channels are fed to five speakers spaced behind
420-458: A far lower cost. Coupled with the rise of the multiplex cinema, which meant that audiences were increasingly seeing films on relatively small screens rather than the giant screens of the old "Picture Palaces", this meant that the expensive 70 mm format went out of favour again. The DTS digital sound-on-disc system was adapted for use with 70 mm film, thus saving the significant costs of magnetic striping, but this has not been enough to stop
490-883: A film about the ache of losing the old Paris to a more contemporary cityscape. To accomplish this, Tati took the radical approach of building a city set of his own design (nicknamed "Tativille"), in which he could have absolute control. Upon its release in 1967, Playtime was the most expensive film ever made in France. Like Tati's other pictures, the dialogue has been post-synchronized and its volume turned down to direct our attention to forms of behavior and visual gags. Hulot first appeared in M. Hulot's Holiday (1953) and then Mon Oncle (1958). With his long-stemmed pipe, raincoat and hat, and his pants often too short, Hulot moves about somewhat lost outside of his "old quarter" of Paris, bemused and confounded by urbanization and technology. Hulot also represented an artistic hindrance for Tati, who by
560-433: A five-year special-royalty basis with Warner Bros. The big screen 3D image was both bright and clear, with all the former sync and brightness problems of traditional dual 35 mm 3D eliminated. Still, it took many years more before IMAX began to test the water for big-screen 3D, and sold the concept to Hollywood executives. Hollywood has released films shot on 35 mm as IMAX blow-up versions. Many 3D films were shown in
630-405: A handful of films (such as Spider-Man 2 ) have used 65mm for this purpose, but the usage of digital intermediate for compositing has largely negated these issues. Digital intermediate offers other benefits such as lower cost and a greater range of available lenses and accessories to ensure a consistent look to the footage. A horizontal variant of 70 mm, with an even bigger picture area,
700-492: A modern city. Knocking down older houses in urban districts, developers rebuilt parts of the city and its suburbs and put up mid-century modern and brutalist blocks of glass and steel in their place. High-rise structures were allowed within Paris for the first time, which were considered an unsightly contrast to its famous monuments. Tati, who had grown up in the quarters of Paris and lived there most of his life, decided to make
770-465: A presumed negative perception of satire in the [American] industry: George S. Kaufman , the great Broadway playwright and director, and screenwriter, once said: 'Satire is what closes on Saturday night.' An excellent wisecrack, but it led the way to a general belief in America that satire is not commercial. When you pitch a satirical film idea, don't refer to it as satire. I used to, and I was met with
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#1732794163730840-566: A projected ratio of 1.85:1. Tati described the effect of 70 mm as follows: "What I find extraordinary is that the device allows the viewer to have a fuller appreciation of a mere pin dropping in a large empty room." Tati wanted the film to be in color but look like it was filmed in black and white, an effect he had previously employed to some extent in Mon Oncle . The predominant colors are shades of grey, blue, black, and greyish white. Green and red are used as occasional accent colors: for example,
910-629: A real-life city or airport, and no city or airport would shut itself down and submit to Tati's obsessive and exacting directorial style, wherein every detail was observed and laboured-over to meticulous effect. Though his cameraman Jean Badal had proposed that Tati erect a building for the production and then sell it afterward, Tati had something more blindly idealistic in mind. His newly developed company Specta-Films would create massive buildings and offices, roads and streetlights, and even an airport. But rather than make these structures functional spaces that could be resold afterward, Tati intended its use for
980-532: A significant portion of its production costs. The film was entered into the 6th Moscow International Film Festival , where it won a Silver Prize. Results were the same upon the film's eventual release in the United States in 1973 (even though it had finally been converted to a 35 mm format at the insistence of US distributors and edited down to 103 minutes). Though Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Playtime "Tati's most brilliant film", it
1050-446: A square scarf, is fitted to her round head); her straight bus ride back to the airport becomes lost in a seemingly endless traffic circle that has the atmosphere of a carnival ride. The extended apartment sequence, where Tati's character visits a friend and tours his apartment, is notable. Tati keeps his audience outside of the apartment as we look inside the lives of these characters. In September 2012, Interiors , an online journal that
1120-589: A system of his own which, he hoped, would be as impressive as Cinerama, yet be simpler and cheaper and avoid the problems associated with three-strip projection; in his own words, he wanted "Cinerama out of one hole". In collaboration with the American Optical Company , Todd developed a system which was to be called " Todd-AO ". This uses a single 70 mm wide film and was introduced with the film Oklahoma! in October 1955. The 70 mm film
1190-431: A wider distribution after the initial debut of the film. South Pacific (1958), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965) are well-known films widely shown in 70 mm format with a general release in 35 mm format. 70 mm film received a brief resurgence in the 1980s when it became popular to make "blow-up" prints of 35 mm titles. It had another resurgence in
1260-437: A young American tourist visiting Paris with an American tourist group, and Monsieur Hulot , a befuddled Frenchman lost in the city. The sequences are as follows: Tati cast nonprofessional actors when possible. He wanted people whose inner essence matched their characters and who could move in the way he wanted. In the 1960s, French president Charles de Gaulle made a vow to develop his country's economy and reform Paris into
1330-509: Is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format . As used in cameras, the film is 65 mm (2.6 in) wide. For projection, the original 65 mm film is printed on 70 mm (2.8 in) film. The additional 5 mm contains the four magnetic stripes , holding six tracks of stereophonic sound. Although later 70 mm prints use digital sound encoding (specifically
1400-406: Is concerned with the relationship between architecture and film, released an issue that discussed how space is used in this scene. The issue highlights how Tati uses the space of the apartment to create voyeurs out of his audience. Tati's financial problems did not improve after PlayTime‘s first showings. On its original French release, Playtime was commercially unsuccessful , failing to earn back
1470-463: Is perforated at the same pitch (0.187 inch, 4.75 mm) as standard 35 mm film. With a five-perforation pull-down, the Todd-AO system provides a frame dimension of 1.912 inch (48.56 mm) by 0.87 inch (22.09 mm) giving an aspect ratio of 2.2:1. The original version of Todd-AO used a frame rate of 30 per second, 25% faster than the 24 frames per second that was (and is) the standard; this
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#17327941637301540-542: Is the low-frequency enhancement channel) and was subsequently adopted for digital sound systems used with 35 mm. In the 1980s the use of these "blow-ups" increased with large numbers of 70 mm prints being made of some blockbusters of the period such as the 125 70 mm prints made of The Empire Strikes Back (1980). However the early 1990s saw the advent of digital sound systems ( Dolby Digital , DTS and SDDS ) for 35 mm prints which meant that 35 mm could finally match 70 mm for sound quality but at
1610-459: Is used for the high-performance IMAX format which uses a frame that is 15 perforations wide on 70 mm film. The Dynavision and Astrovision systems each use slightly less film per frame and vertical pulldown to save print costs while being able to project onto an IMAX screen. Both were rare, with Astrovision largely used in Japanese planetariums . IMAX introduced a digital projection system in
1680-462: The DTS format), the vast majority of existing and surviving 70 mm prints pre-date this technology. Each frame is five perforations tall (i.e., 23.8125 mm or 15/16 inches tall), with an image aspect ratio of 2.2:1. The use of anamorphic Ultra Panavision 70 lenses squeezes an ultra-wide 2.76:1 aspect ratio horizontally into that 2.2:1 imaging area. To this day, Ultra Panavision 70 produces
1750-464: The MGM Camera 65 system they helped develop for MGM that was used to film Raintree County and Ben-Hur . Both Ultra Panavision 70 and MGM Camera 65 employed an anamorphic lens with a 1.25x squeeze on a 65 mm negative (as opposed to 35 mm CinemaScope which used a 2× compression, or 8-perf, horizontally filmed 35 mm Technirama which used a 1.5× compression). When projected on
1820-900: The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, and others. For home theater, VHS and DVD did not offer enough resolution to carry the full image quality captured by 70 mm film, and VHS and DVD video transfers were usually prepared from 35 mm reduction elements. The high-definition Blu-ray format, in contrast, can potentially reveal
1890-851: The political , religious , or social variety. Works using satire are often seen as controversial or taboo in nature, with topics such as race, class, system, violence, sex, war, and politics, criticizing or commenting on them, typically under the disguise of other genres including, but not limited to, comedies , dramas, parodies , fantasies and/or science fiction . Satire may or may not use humor or other, non-humorous forms as an artistic vehicle to illuminate, explore, and critique social conditions, systems of power ("social, political, military, medical or academic institutions" ), hypocrisy , and other instances of human behavior . Film director Jonathan Lynn generally advises against marketing one's work as "satire" because according to Lynn it "can substantially reduce viewing figures and box office" due to
1960-524: The 1959 film Ben-Hur and the 2015 film The Hateful Eight , both of which were filmed with the Ultra Panavision 70/MGM Camera 65 process at an aspect ratio of 2.76:1. It required the use of a 1.25x anamorphic lens to horizontally compress the image, and a corresponding lens on the projector to uncompress it. Limited use of 65 mm film was revived in the late 1970s for some of the visual effects sequences in films like Close Encounters of
2030-915: The 70 mm IMAX format. The Polar Express in IMAX 3D 70 mm earned 14 times as much, per screen, as the simultaneous 2D 35 mm release of that film in the fall of 2004. Same as Standard 65 mm except Same as Standard 65 mm except Same as IMAX except same as standard 65/70 except: Omnivision started in Sarasota, Florida . Theatres were designed to compete with Omnimax but with much lower startup and operating costs. Most theatres were built in fabric domed structures designed by Seaman Corporation. The last known OmniVision theatres to exist in USA are The Alaska Experience Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska , built in 1981 (closed in 2007, reopened in 2008), and
2100-585: The Christopher Nolan films The Dark Knight (featured 28 minutes of IMAX footage), Inception , The Dark Knight Rises (over an hour in IMAX) and Interstellar . Since the 2010s, most movie theaters have converted to digital projection systems, resulting in the removal of both 35 mm (the previous industry standard) projectors and 70 mm projectors. However some venues and organizations remain committed to screening 70 mm film, seeing
2170-567: The French film industry. His studio-set, famously dubbed "Tativille" by the crew, would be built on the southeast corner of Paris, on a wasteland at Saint-Maurice. Construction began in September 1964 and met with almost immediate delays and budgetary problems, and would not be finished until March 1965. Shooting began in April 1965 with a planned 178-day shoot, but lasted until October 1966. During
Playtime - Misplaced Pages Continue
2240-465: The Third Kind , mainly because the larger negative did a better job than 35 mm negative of minimizing visible film grain during optical compositing . 65 mm was the primary film format used at VFX pioneer Douglas Trumbull 's facility EEG (Entertainment Effects Group), which later became Boss Film Studios , run by former Industrial Light & Magic alum Richard Edlund . Since the 1990s,
2310-477: The astonishingly protracted 365 days of actual shooting, minus vacations and stoppages, filming halted sometimes for weeks or months at a time for any number of reasons: bad weather, non-prime lighting conditions, or more commonly because Tati's money had run out. Tati borrowed funds from government financiers, banks, against Specta-Films' assets, and eventually his personal fortune. Soon he turned to friends and family. Public figures and admirers contributed too, but it
2380-440: The audience's attention; with the large image size, sound could be both high and low in the image as well as left and right. As with most Tati films, sound effects were utilized to intensify comedic effect; Leonard Maltin wrote that Tati was the "only man in movie history to get a laugh out of the hum of a neon sign!" Almost the entire film was dubbed after shooting; the editing process took nine months. Philip Kemp has described
2450-482: The decades to come, the longest cut yet released runs 124 minutes. At the time, Tati's artistic integrity toward the project was both inspiring and debilitating. He intended PlayTime to be something new, a "spectacle cinématographique" featuring an exclusive first-run showing with reservable seats, something more along the lines of live theater. He refused to provide some cinemas unequipped with 70 mm projectors an altered 35 mm version, and audiences further confounded by
2520-459: The decline, and 70 mm prints were rarely made. Among some of the more recent 70 mm blow-up titles are Paul Thomas Anderson 's Inherent Vice (2014) and Phantom Thread (2017), Patty Jenkins 's Wonder Woman (2017), and Steven Spielberg 's Ready Player One (2018). In the late 20th century, the usage of 65 mm negative film drastically reduced, in part due to the high cost of 65 mm raw stock and processing. Some of
2590-466: The decreased presence of the beloved M. Hulot added to the lukewarm responses. Moreover, Tati had become worn down not only by the production itself, but by the negative press surrounding its ostentatiousness. That he refused interviews or to allow journalists on his set worsened matters. Negative press both before and after its release soured audience reactions, and Tati's financial troubles led to bankruptcy when he failed to secure full US distribution for
2660-507: The early sixties wanted to move beyond the character. Nevertheless, without Hulot's popularity, any commercial prospects for Playtime would have been nonexistent, and so Hulot does appear in the film. Like all characters and spaces within the frame, Hulot becomes part of the scenery; he disappears for long patches of screen time, seemingly lost in the world. The film is famous for its enormous, specially constructed set and background stage, known as "Tativille", which contributed significantly to
2730-709: The entirely distinct " Cinerama " format), started in 1900 by Raoul Grimoin-Sanson . In 1914 the Italian Filoteo Alberini invented a panoramic film system utilising a 70 mm wide film called Panoramica. In 1928, William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation , in personal partnership with Theodore Case as the Fox-Case Corporation, began working on a wide film format using 70 mm film which they named Grandeur . Cameras were ordered by Fox-Case from Mitchell Camera Corp, with
2800-459: The few films since 1990 shot entirely on 65 mm stock are Kenneth Branagh 's Hamlet (1996), Ron Fricke 's Baraka (1992) and its sequel, Samsara (2011), Paul Thomas Anderson 's The Master (2012), Quentin Tarantino 's The Hateful Eight (2015), Christopher Nolan 's Dunkirk (2017) (almost 80 minutes, about 75% of the film was shot on 65 mm IMAX film, while the rest
2870-434: The film's large budget, said to be 17 million francs. The set required a hundred workers to construct along with its own power plant. Budget crises and other disasters stretched the shooting schedule to three years, including 1.4 million francs in repairs after the set was damaged by storms. Tati observed that the cost of building the set was no greater than what it would have cost to hire Elizabeth Taylor or Sophia Loren for
Playtime - Misplaced Pages Continue
2940-461: The film's plot as exploring "how the curve comes to reassert itself over the straight line". This progression is carried out in numerous ways. At the beginning of the film, people walk in straight lines and turn on right angles. Only working-class construction workers (representing Hulot's "old Paris", celebrated in Mon Oncle ) and two music-loving teenagers move in a curvaceous and naturally human way. Some of this robot-like behavior begins to loosen in
3010-462: The film, compounded by the impact of May 68 in France. Retrospectively, Playtime has come to be regarded as a great achievement by many critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A remarkable achievement, Playtime packs every scene with sight gags and characters that both celebrates and satirizes
3080-721: The first 70 mm production cameras, designated as the Mitchell Model FC camera, delivered to Fox-Case in May 1929. This was one of a number of wide-film processes developed by some of the major film studios at about that time. However, due to the financial strains of the Great Depression, along with strong resistance from movie theater owners, who were in the process of equipping their theaters for sound, none of these systems became commercially successful. Fox dropped Grandeur in 1930. Producer Mike Todd had been one of
3150-420: The founders of Cinerama , a wide-screen movie process that was launched in 1952. Cinerama employed three 35 mm film projectors running in synchronism to project a wide (2.6:1) image onto a deeply curved screen. Although the results were impressive, the system was expensive, cumbersome and had some serious shortcomings due to the need to match up three separate projected images. Todd left the company to develop
3220-421: The frame, the director's choice was impelled by a desire to implement a rectangular widescreen format, since his other films had all been presented in the more square 35mm standard . Larger format film stock, especially 70mm, was usually reserved for epics such as Ben-Hur (1959) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Tati, however, did not employ the full 2.2:1 aspect ratio of 70mm, instead narrowing it slightly for
3290-546: The glass door are also photographs. Tati also used life-sized cutout photographs of people to save money on extras; these are noticeable in some of the cubicles when Hulot overlooks the maze of offices, and in the deep background in some of the shots at ground level. Tati's enormous presentation would be shot in high-resolution 70mm, allowing the expansive real-world exteriors to dominate the frame. Tati's previous films were shot on actual locations, for Playtime , Tati could not afford what it would cost to take over whole segments of
3360-479: The greatest films of all time . In 2022, Playtime was voted 23rd on the British Film Institute 's critics' list and 41st in their directors' list of " Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time ". Playtime is set in a hyperconsumerist mid-century modern Paris . The story is structured in six sequences, linked by two characters who repeatedly encounter one another over the course of a day: Barbara,
3430-415: The greenish hue of patrons lit by a neon sign in a sterile and modern lunch counter, or the flashing red light on an office intercom. It has been said that Tati had one red item in every shot. Except for a single flower stall, there are no genuine green plants or trees on the set, though dull plastic plants adorn the outer balconies of some buildings, including the restaurant (the one location shot apart from
3500-407: The height of its popularity most major markets and cities had a theater that could screen it. Some venues continue to screen 70 mm to this day or have even had 70 mm projectors permanently or temporarily installed for more recent 70 mm releases. Films formatted with a width of 70 mm have existed since the early days of the motion picture industry. The first 70 mm format film
3570-592: The inevitable response that satirical films don't make money. This view is factually incorrect. Plenty have done so, if budgeted right. Film, more than television, offers advantages for satire, such as the "possibility of achieving the proper balance" between realism and non-realism , using the latter to communicate about the former. The ideal climate for a satirical film involves "fairly free" political conditions and/or independent producers with "modest" financial backing. UK USA Japan 70 mm film 70 mm film (or 65 mm film )
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#17327941637303640-473: The late 2000s and most IMAX venues have migrated to a digital setup. The first commercial introduction of 70 mm single projector 3D was the 1967 release of Con la muerte a la espalda , a Spanish/French/Italian co-production which used a process called Hi-Fi Stereo 70, itself based on a simplified, earlier developed soviet process called Stereo-70. This process captured two anamorphic images, one for each eye, side by side on 65 mm film. A special lens on
3710-522: The leading role. Budget overruns forced Tati to take out large loans and personal overdrafts to cover ever-increasing costs. As Playtime depended greatly on visual comedy and sound effects, Tati chose to shoot it using high-resolution 70 mm film and a stereophonic soundtrack that was complex for its time. To save money, some of the building facades and the interior of the Orly set were actually giant photographs. The Paris landmarks Barbara sees reflected in
3780-623: The mid-2010s with the release of The Master (2012), The Hateful Eight (2015) and Dunkirk (2017), with a small number of venues getting temporary or permanent 70 mm film projectors in order to be able to screen these titles. Quentin Tarantino , in particular, led a successful campaign to have the equipment required to show The Hateful Eight in Ultra Panavision installed in 100 cinemas worldwide. The 35 mm to 70 mm "blow-up" process produces 70 mm release prints from 35 mm negatives, so that films shot on
3850-480: The mid-70s (before the advent of Dolby A ) were screening 35 mm prints with single channel monaural sound. However these "blow-ups" rarely used the full six channels of the Todd-AO system and instead used the four-track mixes made for 35 mm prints, the additional half-left and half-right speakers of the Todd-AO layout being fed with a simple mix of the signals intended for the adjacent speakers (known as
3920-440: The quality advantage of 70 mm productions. Although telecine machines for 70 mm scanning are uncommon, high-resolution transfers from high-quality full-gauge elements can reveal impressive technical quality. An anamorphic squeeze combined with 65 mm film allowed for extremely wide aspect ratios to be used while still preserving quality. This was used in the 1957 film Raintree County and to incredible success in
3990-467: The restaurant scene near the end of the film, as the participants set aside their assigned roles and learn to enjoy themselves after a plague of opening-night disasters. Throughout the film, the American tourists are continually lined up and counted, though Barbara keeps escaping and must be frequently called back to conform with the others. By the end, she has united the curve and the line (Hulot's gift,
4060-481: The road to the airport). Thus, when the character of Barbara arrives at the Royal Garden restaurant in an emerald green dress seen as "dated" by the other whispering female patrons clothed in dark attire, she visually contrasts not only with the other diners, but also with the entire physical environment of the film. As the characters in the restaurant scene begin to lose their normal social inhibitions and revel in
4130-418: The screen, and the sixth is fed to surround speakers around the walls of the auditorium. Panavision developed their own 65/70 mm system that was technically compatible and virtually identical to Todd-AO. Monikered as Super Panavision 70 , it used spherical lenses and the same 2.2:1 aspect ratio at 24 frames per second. Panavision also had another 65 mm system, Ultra Panavision 70 , which sprang from
4200-459: The smaller format could benefit from 70 mm image and sound quality. This process began in the 1960s with titles like The Cardinal (1963) and continues up until the present day, with the height of its popularity being in the 1980s. These enlargements often provided richer colors, and a brighter, steadier and sharper (though often grainier) image, but the main benefit was the ability to provide 6-channel stereophonic sound as most theaters before
4270-797: The special format as something that can set them apart and be an audience draw in an industry where most movies are screened digitally. 70 mm film festivals continue to take place regularly at venues such as The Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Massachusetts, The Music Box Theatre in Chicago, the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon, the American Cinematheque 's Aero and Egyptian Theaters in Los Angeles,
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#17327941637304340-445: The unraveling of their surroundings, Tati intensifies both color and lighting accordingly: late arrivals to the restaurant are less conservative, arriving in vibrant, often patterned clothing. Tati detested close-ups, considering them crude, and shot in 70 mm film so that all the actors and their physical movements would be visible, even when they were in the far background of a group scene. He used sound rather than visual cues to direct
4410-490: The urbanization of modern life." Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 99 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In 2012, Playtime was ranked as the 43rd-greatest film of all time in a Sight and Sound poll of film critics; in the 2022 edition of the poll, it rose to number 23 and was ranked at number 41 in a parallel poll of film directors. Satire (film and television) Film or television satire may be of
4480-433: The widest picture size in the history of filmmaking; surpassed only by Polyvision , which was only used for 1927's Napoléon . With regard to exhibition, 70 mm film was always considered a specialty format reserved for epics and spectacle films shot on 65 mm and blockbuster films that were released both in 35 mm and as 70 mm blow-ups. While few venues were equipped to screen this special format, at
4550-466: The work is notable for its enormous set, which Tati had built specially for the film, as well as Tati's trademark use of subtle yet complex visual comedy supported by creative sound effects. The film's dialogue, variously in French, English, and German, is frequently reduced to the level of background noise. While it was a commercial failure on its original release, Playtime is retrospectively considered Tati's masterpiece, his most daring work, and one of
4620-575: Was changed after the second film – Around the World in 80 Days - because of the need to produce (24 frame/sec) 35 mm reduction prints from the Todd-AO 65 mm negative. The Todd-AO format was originally intended to use a deeply curved Cinerama-type screen but this failed to survive beyond the first few films. However, in the 1960s and 70s, such films as The Sound of Music (which had been filmed in Todd-AO) and Patton (which had been filmed in
4690-611: Was most likely footage of the Henley Regatta , which was projected in 1896 and 1897, but may have been filmed as early as 1894. It required a specially built projector built by Herman Casler in Canastota, New York and had a ratio similar to full frame, with an aperture of 2.75 inches (70 mm) by 2 inches (51 mm). There were also several film formats of various sizes from 50 to 68 mm which were developed from 1884 onwards, including Cinéorama (not to be confused with
4760-531: Was no more a commercial success in the United States than in France. Debts incurred as a result of the film's cost overruns eventually forced Tati to file for bankruptcy. Complaints that the film was too long resulted in Tati cutting down individual copies of the film from the original runtime of 140 minutes to under 120 minutes for general release. Tati assured the film community that the original 70 mm negative remained in his possession, but after various re-releases in
4830-419: Was not enough. Tati eventually signed away the rights to his three previous pictures. The final budget for PlayTime was reportedly anywhere between five and twelve million francs; though many bills went unpaid by the time production had wrapped. Tati decided to use 70mm panoramic stock, whereas his other pictures were all shot in 1.33:1. While the wider strip of film allowed for a greater sense of detail within
4900-577: Was shot on regular 65mm film), Kenneth Branagh 's Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Tenet (2020), Oppenheimer (2023), and The Brutalist (2024). Other films used 65 mm cameras sparingly, for selected scenes or special effects. Films with limited 65 mm footage include Terrence Malick 's The New World (2005), the Patty Jenkins film Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Cary Joji Fukunaga 's No Time to Die (2021) and
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