Ghent Film Festival Gent pays tribute to Tati

Ghent Film Festival Gent pays tribute to Tati in an exceptional exhibition
More than 60 years after Jacques Tati’s first feature film, the Ghent Film Festival wants to give the French director, actor and comedian a worthy tribute. In order to bring the world of Tati fully to life, the Province of East Flanders is putting on the exhibition 'JACQUES TATI: In Double Quick Time' in the Caermersklooster - Provincial Cultural Centre on the initiative of and in collaboration with the Ghent Film Festival. It will be produced by the Cinemathèque Française in collaboration with Les Films de Mon Oncle. The exhibition will run from 15 October 2010 to 16 January 2011.
Tati once said: “I want the film to start when you leave the cinema.” He would appreciate this unusual exhibition therefore. Never before has the unique vision of Tati been so tangible for the public. Tati fans will be able to get their fill of original pieces and reproductions: the office set for PlayTime, the design interior of Villa Arpel, the bike of François the postman in Jour de Fête, Tati’s legendary pipe in XL format and a multitude of hitherto unseen photos, posters, props, costumes, models and storyboards. For those who are less familiar with the works of Tati, the exhibition provides a fun and colourful setting for discovering the humour and aesthetics of this exceptional director. All in all the exhibition will feature objects displayed in a surface area of more than 500m2 and will show dozens of film clips.

The 'JACQUES TATI' exhibition is a creation of the Cinemathèque Française in collaboration with Les Films de Mon Oncle and is designed by Macha Makeïeff. Curators are Macha Makeïeff and Stéphane Goudet.(*) Ghent is the second city after Paris where the exhibition will be shown. The original concept will be adapted for Ghent to fit in with the stunning location of the Caermersklooster. A 310-page catalogue entitled 'Deux Temps, Trois Mouvements' will be produced for the exhibition.

With this exhibition the Province of East Flanders continues the tradition of showcasing an important body of work associated with the Film Festival.


The World of Tati
Jacques Tati, with six features to his name over a period of more than 20 years, was not the most prolific director, but he was without a doubt one of the most inventive. As director and actor, he created a world that still forms part of our collective memory. The hilarious stunts of François the postman in Jour de Fête (1949) marked the beginning of Tati’s career. The sharp, but comic criticism of modernism appeared in all his following films. In Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), PlayTime (1967) and Trafic (1971) the illustrious character of Monsieur Hulot was the perfect personification of the characteristic slapstick humour of Tati. In the film Parade (1974) he exchanged Monsieur Hulot for Monsieur Loyal, a circus artist in the company of jugglers, magicians and acrobats.

Jacques Tati was a guest twice at the Ghent Film Festival including one time during the filming of Trafic. He was welcomed at the time by Jacques Dubrulle, the General Manager of the festival. Any tribute to a guest as popular as this has to include an extensive retrospective programme with showings of Tati’s films. You can find more information about this in the press file for the festival.


Tati the Magician
2010 will be a hugely celebratory year for fans of Jacques Tati, because on 16 June, L’illusionniste by Sylvain Chomet, the director of Les Triplettes de Belleville, will be showing in cinemas. The story of this animated feature is based on an unpublished scenario by Jacques Tati.

L’illusionniste tells the tale of a dying breed of stage entertainer whose thunder is being stolen by emerging rock stars. Forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theaters, garden parties and bars, he meets a young fan who changes his life forever.


(*) Macha Makeïeff and Stéphane Goudet are curators of the exhibition. She’s an author, director for theater and opera, sculptur, and together with Jérôme Deschamps head of the theater company they founded. She also writes essays about the theater and the poëtry of objects. In 2000 she founded, together with Jérôme Deschamps and Sophie Tatischeff ‘Les Films de Mon Oncle’ for the preservation of Jacques Tati’s work.

Stéphane Goudet teaches film history at the university of Paris and runs the theater Georges Méliès de Montreuil. As an author he wrote two books (PlayTime, met François Ede en Jacques Tati, de François le facteur à Monsieur Hulot) and three filmanalysis about Jacques Tati.