Jacques Tati's Trafic
The last film to feature Tati's famous character of Monsieur Hulot, Trafic's exploration of mass car use now seems prescient. Matthew Sweet and guests reassess the film.
Monsieur Hulot is a car designer who takes a chaotic journey to an auto-show in Amsterdam to show off his prototype in this comic film from 1971. It's the last of Jacques Tati's films to feature Hulot, whose name is said to be inspired in part by the French name for Charlie Chaplin's character in The Tramp - Charlot, and whom Rowan Atkinson has cited as an influence on his comic creation Mr Bean. Matthew Sweet discusses Jacques Tati with fellow film historians Adam Scovell, Muriel Zagha and Phuong Le.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod
In the Free Thinking archives you can find Matthew discussing other classics such as Charlie Chaplin's City Lights /programmes/b03vd853
the career of Billy Wilder and his film Fedora /programmes/m000p1dx
Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box /programmes/m0001xwd
A long interview with Kevin Brownlow about restoring silent film classics /programmes/b07z7bn4
Image: Jacques Tati fixes tire in a scene from the film 'Traffic', 1972
Credit: Columbia Pictures/Getty Images
Last on
More episodes
Broadcast
- Wed 14 Apr 2021 22:00大象传媒 Radio 3
Featured in...
![]()
Landmarks—Free Thinking, Landmark: The Tin Drum
Key films, books, TV, plays, art: 1001 Nights 鈥� 2001 A Space Odyssey, Jane Austen - Jaws
The Arts & Ideas Podcast
You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking
Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019
Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV
Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional
Angry politics, what we can鈥檛 say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many
We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival
Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life