Tativille INTERVAL: cameos & red herrings
I’m not aware whether Jacques Tati might have watched North by Northwest (1959) while he was touring the USA to promote Mon oncle (1958). I don’t even know whether he liked Alfred Hitchcock much. But it seems likely. For here is Hitchcock’s cameo in that film…
Screen capture from "North by Northwest" (1959, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, ph. Robert Burks): Hitch misses the bus.
… and here is Tati’s first appearance in Play time…
Screen capture from Play Time (1967, dir. Jacques Tati, ph. Jean Badal/Andréas Winding): Hulot v Hulot.
… and here are images from the opening credits of each film: mid-credits in North by Northwest…
Screen capture from "North by Northwest" (1959, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, ph. Robert Burks); New York...
… and immediately post-credits in Play time.
... and Tativille.
It seems too tidy to be purely coincidental. It may have been just an affectionate wink, in the manner of Hitchcock’s apparition as a cardboard cut-out hovering in mid-air deep in the shadows of Last year at Marienbad (1960)’s plush hotel corridors.
- Screen capture from “L’année dernière à Marienbad” (1961, dir. Alain Resnais, ph. Sacha Vierny): ♥ Hitchcock.
(Though this may have been just Alain Resnais throwing us a red herring: so you think this is going to be a thriller?)
Indeed, there don’t seem to be any very significant links screaming for attention between Play time and North by Northwest. All I can think of is that the latter shows a highly organised, at first sight thoroughly rational system collapsing into chaos because its activities – and North by Northwest is all about frantic, relentless activity – turn around a hollow – screw that, inexistent – core. Also, most of it takes place in New York, and its themes include confusion, disorientation and loss of identity.
It is known that that the impressions Tati garnered during his tour, particularly of New York City, were key to the development of Play time. It seems uncharacteristically intellectualised and allusive for Tati (in other words, chances are I am reading too much into it), but if there is a connection along these terms, then the nod to Northwest could well be one of the subtlest – and most pointed – jabs at contemporary life in all of Play time.
Tags: Alain Resnais, Alfred Hitchcock, cinema, Jacques Tati, L'année dernière à Marienbad, MacGuffin, North by Northwest, Play Time