Jacques Tati, le rire démocratique 2002

Directed by Pierre Philippe

A veritable anthology of themes dear to Tati, this documentary traces the life and work of this strange character, the initiator of a poetic revolution unparalleled in French cinema. This "best of Tati" looks back at the future filmmaker's first loves for mime and music hall. While performing at the Lido and La Scala, stringing together the comic sketches that would later appear in his films, the young Tati never stopped dreaming of cinema. The son of a Russian framer, he himself became obsessed with framing—earning him the nickname "tati-llon"—and considered the cinematic image to be the equivalent of a pictorial frame. Through the most famous excerpts from his "gag" films, we discover another ambition: to explore the rarely visited territory of essays and philosophical tales...