PlayTime: A Charming, Chaotic Journey Through Paris

Danny Debito, December 5, 2025

PlayTime follows Monsieur Hulot, portrayed by director Jacques Tati, as he bumbles his way through a very busy day in Paris. The plot is tenuous; Monsieur Hulot goes to a meeting, gets rerouted 800 times by happenstance and winds up ultimately befriending an American tourist and spending the night out at a new restaurant, until he sees his tourist friend off the next morning. Neither the characters nor the plot really matter. What matters is the intricate world Tati has created and let his characters stumble through.

Tati created “Tativille” for this movie, an enormous set that reproduced Paris’s airport terminal, city streets, high rise buildings, and roads. Tati orchestrates incredibly choreographed scenes where the entire scene is shown the entire time. There is so much to look at, so many blink-and-you-miss-it visual gags, it’s like watching a moving Where’s Waldo, but Waldo isn’t important. It’s hard to know what to focus on; Monsieur Hulot is far from the most interesting thing on screen. He is driving the plot, but it's almost as if it's by accident.

It’s clear that Tativille, and therefore the plot of PlayTime, was created to show the disconnect between humanity and the world it's built for itself. The opening shots of the airport terminal are so clinical and sterile and they’re slowly filled with bustling, interesting people going their own ways. Monsieur Hulot arrives at his meeting and is sat in the most sterile waiting room of all time, the office building itself is full of completely see through glass walls, the chairs make noises as if a human being has never sat on them before. The juxtaposition between the humans and their environment is so stark it invites the viewer to think about their environment, their relationships, and see the opportunity for humor in our own surroundings.

The film culminates with the opening of a new restaurant, where everything goes wrong. As things snowball, the guests at the restaurant have more and more fun, seemingly mostly oblivious to all of the little accidents. This sequence is when the movie really got me. There were so many silly running jokes, characters in the background who seem to be having the time of their lives. It's a delicious viewing experience and I already want to watch it again.

TL;DR: For a movie with hardly any dialogue, almost zero actionable plot, and only like two repeated characters it has a lot to say about humanity, happy accidents, and how to go with the flow. I’d recommend this movie to almost anyone, but particularly to people who like Rube Goldberg machines, spot the difference puzzles, and slap-stick comedy.