The Auteurs #49: Jacques Tati

Among one of the masters in the art of comedy, Jacques Tati was someone who brought the pantomime style of Charles Chaplin and infuse it with a whimsical persona as well as commentary on a world run amok. Though he only made six feature films and a handful shorts in his career, Tati did manage to bring something new to the world of comedy in the age of post-war cinema from tales of simple small town life to the craziness of the modern world. Much of which is told in manners that are very funny but also has an air of sentimentality and bits of drama while not falling on the wayside in order to entertain audiences old and young. Even as his films have managed to endure more than thirty years since his passing as it plays into times where things were simple and less complicated in a world often succumbing to the pressures of modernism.

Born on October 9, 1907 in Les Pecq in the Yvelines region of France, Jacques Tatischeff was the son of George Emmanuel Tatischeff and Marcelle Claire van Hoof as he was the youngest of two children that included his eldest sister Natalie. George Tatischeff was the son of Dmitry Tatischev who was the General of the Russian Imperial Army and military attaché for the Russian Embassy in Paris which would allow George to use his connection to maintain a high lifestyle for his family with his wife who used her connections in the art world to get her husband work in the art world. For the young Jacques, the carefree lifestyle would allow him to take part in different sports where in his early 20s where he was part of semi-professional rugby team in Paris. Jacques would discover his gift for comedy as he would meet one of his early collaborators in Jacques Broido.

More can be read here at Cinema Axis.

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