veebee2
Joined Jan 2002
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Reviews19
veebee2's rating
Believe me, I'm a huge Laurel & Hardy fan of lang standing. I bought the single 'Trail of the Lonesome Pine' back in 1975 (#2 in the UK charts that Christmas), and had both LP albums of their material. So I am prepared to be honest and say I didn't particularly enjoy this one.
It seems odd this was released after the gem that was "Perfect Day", because it seems such a step backward in technique and even characterisation.
Taking place in a single, restricted set, tediously shot with a very static camera, the film isn't even interesting to watch.
The slapstick seems heavy-handed, and even Laurel & Hardy don't appear to have settled into the 'talkie' Stan and Ollie (their silent characters were quite different) we know and love. Ollie barks orders at Stan in a way which doesn't fit with his later exasperated dignity, while Stan talks back to him rather than looking vacant or bursting into aplogetic tears. The dialogue is strangely crude and inane. The climax seems to have been made to fit the working title, and is punctuated with Laurel & Hardy saying things like "Oh, goodness! Oh, my! What's happening?" which just sound badly ad-libbed.
If this film has one distinction, it's that there is one Laurel & Hardy picture I don't want to sit through very often.
It seems odd this was released after the gem that was "Perfect Day", because it seems such a step backward in technique and even characterisation.
Taking place in a single, restricted set, tediously shot with a very static camera, the film isn't even interesting to watch.
The slapstick seems heavy-handed, and even Laurel & Hardy don't appear to have settled into the 'talkie' Stan and Ollie (their silent characters were quite different) we know and love. Ollie barks orders at Stan in a way which doesn't fit with his later exasperated dignity, while Stan talks back to him rather than looking vacant or bursting into aplogetic tears. The dialogue is strangely crude and inane. The climax seems to have been made to fit the working title, and is punctuated with Laurel & Hardy saying things like "Oh, goodness! Oh, my! What's happening?" which just sound badly ad-libbed.
If this film has one distinction, it's that there is one Laurel & Hardy picture I don't want to sit through very often.
As many reviewers observe here, following "Mon Oncle" and the huge canvas of "Playtime", "Trafic" can look like small beer - but it still contains its fair measure of Tati-isms and a reminder that the best thing we can have in life is a sense humanity rather than a mechanised, de-natured existence.
In this case the vehicle (pun intended) for Tati's vision is a journey to display a "camper car" designed by M. Hulot at a motor fair in Amsterdam. The chaotic working practices at the auto works nail Tati's views of any human 'organisation'. A brisk, no-nonsense American public relations expert (Maria Kimberly) arrives, determined to bring order and efficiency to the project and finally Hulot and his driver set off with the prototype vehicle, ready to take the motor world by storm. Maria darts on ahead in her little yellow sports car.
On the journey Tati shows us endless streams of traffic: cars, trucks, trucks delivering new cars, trucks delivering fuel for cars, trucks delivering road-building material for the cars to run on. The soundtrack becomes an endless roar of noise and dust as the earth is given over to motor vehicles.
But life is more than a simple dash to get to a destination in the straightest line at the highest speed. Along the way Tati's team are delayed by a tyre blowout, Dutch customs, a serious breakdown, and finally some repair work.
Throughout the journey Maria has become more and more frustrated at the failure to reach their objective. The final repairs take place in a small workshop in the countryside, by a river which flows at its natural pace, never feeling the need to drive itself ever onward, ever faster.
Maria comes to realise that there is more in life than 'efficiency' and a drive to get things done. Even her body language changes from jerky, self-important impatience to more natural and spontaneous gestures of affection for those around her, and her dress from the 1970's equivalent of 'power dressing' to relaxed jeans and t-shirts.
The sight gags here are as good as anything else in Tati's work (he doesn't even shy from the strange tendency of people to pick their noses in traffic jams). This may be a work in a minor key, but it still has a lot to tell us over half a century later.
In this case the vehicle (pun intended) for Tati's vision is a journey to display a "camper car" designed by M. Hulot at a motor fair in Amsterdam. The chaotic working practices at the auto works nail Tati's views of any human 'organisation'. A brisk, no-nonsense American public relations expert (Maria Kimberly) arrives, determined to bring order and efficiency to the project and finally Hulot and his driver set off with the prototype vehicle, ready to take the motor world by storm. Maria darts on ahead in her little yellow sports car.
On the journey Tati shows us endless streams of traffic: cars, trucks, trucks delivering new cars, trucks delivering fuel for cars, trucks delivering road-building material for the cars to run on. The soundtrack becomes an endless roar of noise and dust as the earth is given over to motor vehicles.
But life is more than a simple dash to get to a destination in the straightest line at the highest speed. Along the way Tati's team are delayed by a tyre blowout, Dutch customs, a serious breakdown, and finally some repair work.
Throughout the journey Maria has become more and more frustrated at the failure to reach their objective. The final repairs take place in a small workshop in the countryside, by a river which flows at its natural pace, never feeling the need to drive itself ever onward, ever faster.
Maria comes to realise that there is more in life than 'efficiency' and a drive to get things done. Even her body language changes from jerky, self-important impatience to more natural and spontaneous gestures of affection for those around her, and her dress from the 1970's equivalent of 'power dressing' to relaxed jeans and t-shirts.
The sight gags here are as good as anything else in Tati's work (he doesn't even shy from the strange tendency of people to pick their noses in traffic jams). This may be a work in a minor key, but it still has a lot to tell us over half a century later.