12pt9<p><a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Bales2023FilmChallenge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bales2023FilmChallenge</span></a> March 31: Spot the <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Eiffel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Eiffel</span></a> Tower on <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/EiffelTowerDay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EiffelTowerDay</span></a></p><p>Never was or will I be a fan of Jacques <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Tati" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tati</span></a>, the loveable Luddite who wouldn't be as big as he became if it wasn't for the technological wonders of the 20th century. Having said that, his <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Playtime" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Playtime</span></a> (1967) holds a special place in my heart. Tati's alter ego Monsieur <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Hulot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hulot</span></a> roams a hyper-modern <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Paris" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Paris</span></a>, actually an enormous soundstage dubbed <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Tativille" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tativille</span></a>. People, buildings and gadgets interact with and against each other, each and everyone as plotless as a prop. In unison, it becomes a perfectly orchestrated symphony of maddening modernism. But Tati wouldn't be Tati if it wasn't for a glimpse of quiet nostalgia. A woman holding the glass-and-steel entrance door of yet another concrete office building. In the glass, a burst of warm light and colour and movement. And then it's gone, and we remember how that tower once was the thorn in the Luddite's eye, that “baroque and mercantile fancy of a builder of machines”.</p><p><a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/film" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>film</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/cinema" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cinema</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/JacquesTati" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>JacquesTati</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/MonsieurHulot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MonsieurHulot</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/TourEiffel" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TourEiffel</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/EiffelTower" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EiffelTower</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/Paris" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Paris</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/architecture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>architecture</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/MonsieurHulot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>MonsieurHulot</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/FilMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FilMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://cinematheque.social/tags/CineMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CineMastodon</span></a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/film" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>film</span></a></span> <a href="https://letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bales2023filmchallenge/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">letterboxd.com/12pt9/list/bale</span><span class="invisible">s2023filmchallenge/</span></a></p>