Tapis Rouge Classiques returns to De Uitkijk with Trafic. The film will be shown with Dutch subtitles and will be introduced by Pierre-Pascal Bruneau, founder and chair of the L'Echappée Foundation and Tapis Rouge.
In Trafic, the final feature film by Jacques Tati, Monsieur Hulot drives a camper from Paris to Amsterdam. Along the way, he becomes entangled in a series of chaotic traffic situations.
Monsieur Hulot has designed a multifunctional camper — one equipped with more absurd technical gadgets than James Bond’s custom cars. He plans to present his creation at the world-famous auto show at the RAI in Amsterdam. However, the journey proves far from smooth.
As is typical of Tati, Trafic features minimal dialogue. The film relies instead on Tati’s perfectly orchestrated physical comedy and a wealth of clever visual gags.
This French-Dutch co-production initially included Dutch filmmaker Bert Haanstra (responsible for three scenes). Tati admired Haanstra’s work (Zoo, Glass) and was eager to collaborate. However, the scriptwriting process proved difficult, and Haanstra ultimately withdrew from the project. He is still credited in the film’s closing titles as a close collaborator — under the name Bert Haanstra.
Previous collaborations between De Uitkijk and Tapis Rouge included:
Les Enfants du paradis (1948) – Marcel Carné
Cléo de 5 à 7 (1963) – Agnès Varda
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1978) – Chantal Akerman
Belle de Jour (1967) – Luis Buñuel
Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959) – François Truffaut
Le Salaire de la Peur (1953) – Henri-Georges Clouzot
À bout de souffle (1960) – Jean-Luc Godard
La Piscine (1969) – Jacques Deray
Plein Soleil (1960) – René Clément