Next up on the essays shelf:
The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks)
As the decades pass, the “Talk of the Town” pieces start to lose their taut minimalism. They get wordier. They are more “short articles”, rather than their own “in miniature” observations. I prefer the earlier “Talk of the Town” pieces (some of which I highlighted in earlier excerpts – click on the tag at the bottom of the post). For example, to write one of these you have to be able to boil down a giant figure like, say, Eleanor Roosevelt, into three paragraphs at the most. You have to have a great eye for the detail that will organize the image, the unexpected, the funny quip, the random quote. The pieces aren’t meant to be weighty, the voice is light and airy, even when taking on deep topics. That singularity is lost a bit when we start getting into the 50s and beyond. But there are still some wonderful profiles and character studies.
In this piece, French clown and film-maker Jacques Tati is visiting New York for the premiere of his first international hit Mr. Hulot’s Holiday. It is his first time in America.
I’m a bit obsessed with Tati’s Playtime (review here), the film that ruined him financially. It’s one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Please check out The Siren’s post about the film. We were obsessing on it at the same time, by osmosis.
Tati had a very specific and original view of the world and its comedy, and Playtime was the apex of his vision. He only directed six films in his entire career. Fascinating.
Americans embraced “Mr. Hulot”, the bumbling kind-hearted clown with an umbrella and a trenchcoat, and Lillian Ross went to talk to Tati about how he felt about his success and his films. It’s still a short piece, in keeping with the style, and there are some excellent quotes. I’ll quote just a bit of it. Here, he talks about how he broke into comedy. It is so random, so specific. You can see in the story the elements that will continue to interest and obsess Tati over his career.
It’s 1954.
The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks)
Young Tati’s specialty was so peculiar that not an impresario in Paris would look at him. “For years, I was broke,” Tati said. “I slept every night in a different place. I sat in cafes and talked with friends, and when I needed to eat, I would go to a certain cabaret and imitate a drunken waiter who is constantly making mistakes. For an evening of supposedly drunken waiting, I would be given my dinner and fifty francs. It was the happiest and most free time I have ever known.” Tati got his big break in 1934, when a friend arranged for him to appear on a program at the Ritz with Chevalier and Mistingueti. “I was so frightened that though I was supposed to go on first, I couldn’t stand or talk,” Tati said. “I hid in a corner backstage and the show started without me. When it was over and the people were leaving, the manager of the show saw me hiding in the corner. He ran out on the stage and shouted that one of the entertainers had been forgotten. Then he introduced me. The people returned to their seats and I had to go on. The next thing I knew, I heard them laughing, I could not imagine that they were laughing at me. I looked around for the entertainer they were laughing at. No one else was onstage. It had to be me. Soon they were applauding and shouting, and the manager was shaking my hand. Then came he impresarios, and I was playing in music halls and circuses all over Europe.”
This was Tati’s first visit to the United States. He was scheduled to play at the Radio City Music Hall in 1939 but wound up in the French infantry instead. He attended several baseball games in the course of his visit and plans to add a baseball pantomime to his sports act. It took him a year and a half to make “Jour de Fete”, and as long to make “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday”, and he is only just beginning to think about a new movie. His favorite comedian is an English music-hall performer named Little Tich, whom he saw when he was seven. The comedian who makes him laugh most is the late W.C. Fields. He admires Chaplin, but for the most part Chaplin doesn’t make him laugh. “Chaplin is full of ideas,” Tati said. “I am so busy watching the working out of his beautiful ideas that I never find time to laugh.”
