Jacques Tati's Anarchist Aesthetics

Somatic geometry: Jacques Tati's anarchist aesthetics

Article (Unspecified)

Hester, Diarmuid (2011) Somatic geometry: Jacques Tati's anarchist aesthetics. One+One Filmmakers Journal, 7. pp. 4-8.

This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/38042/

This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version.

Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.

Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way.

http://sro.sussex.ac.uk One+One Filmmakers Journal

Mon Oncle cet anarchiste and free individual movement is confined Somatic Geometry: A descendant of Russian émigré aristo- to prescribed routes, pathways and lanes. crats and a bored picture-framer by pro- Consequently, when the camera lingers fession, Tati (born Jacques Tatischeff) over the modernised district, the film of Jacques Tati’s anarchist aesthetics would have seemed an unlikely candidate Mon Oncle appears cross-hatched with Diarmuid Hester to become a lauded and much-loved di- the outlines of these channels. In one of rector of France’s septième art, much less the film’s extended opening scenes, for one who, as we shall see, used his work instance, an orderly procession of cars to articulate a belief in the sovereign will of diligently follows, with conveyor-belt con- the individual. However, his gift for physi- sistency, the signs and road-markings cal comedy quickly propelled him from which direct them to the school and then “I am not a Communist. I could have been performing mimes for his rugby team af- to the factory and then back home again. if Communist history were not so sad. It ter matches to the Paris music-halls and The grounds of M. Arpel’s “Plastac” fac- makes me sound old-fashioned but I think finally to filmmaking, with the production tory and its corridors are likewise replete I am an anarchist. Great things were done of Jour de Fête in 1949. Following its suc- with lines and arrows demanding uniform historically by anarchists.” cess and that of the subsequent Les Va- movement and delimiting all deviation. (Jacques Tati) cances de M. Hulot (1953), Tati embarked In addition (recalling Tolstoy’s conten- upon the production of his third feature, tion that authority corrupts and induces Often misunderstood as a byword for cha- Mon Oncle [My Uncle], which observes man to “commit acts contrary to [his] con- os, social disorder and the violent destruc- the daily life of a young boy (Gérard), his science”),2 constraints placed upon indi- tion of civilisation, perhaps the least bad mother and father (the Arpels) and his un- vidual agency in the public sphere seem to description of anarchism might rather be cle, M. Hulot (a character Tati had played have become internalised such that mod- an insistent demand for the liberation of the to great acclaim in his previous film). Set in ern man compulsively etches impressions individual from artificially-imposed forms of a curiously bifurcated French town which of outside routes upon even his private authority. Critiques advanced by William on one side houses the languid, provincial space. Thus, the Arpel’s so-called garden Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Prudhon, Mikael France of cafés and communal living, and is itself composed of numerous, mutually Bakunin and other leading lights of the on the other the cold Le Corbusier chic of exclusive, artificial paths: one exclusively anarchist movement, while no doubt dis- suburban and industrial modernity, Mon connects the gate to the front door; an- parate in nuance, are all erected upon the Oncle is simultaneously a bittersweet tale other leads only from the front door to the fundamental sovereignty of individual will: of a boy’s friendship with his eccentric terrace; a circuitous one connects just the anarchism thus traditionally perceives sys- uncle and an entertaining depiction of a back door and the patio. “It’s practical!” tems of authority (the most pernicious of modern family’s hilarious attempts to get “It’s modern!” Mme Arpel exclaims, “It all which is the state) as just so many regimes along at home and at work. communicates,” but these paths neither of control, hampering at every turn the ex- Yet the film also sketches a virulent connect nor communicate, their function Mon Oncle Poster pression of this will. Though this vision of anarchist critique of modernity’s acceler- is entirely impractical, and Tati is quick to anarchy has often surfaced in various art artists use the formal composition of their ated subtraction of personal agency and capitalise upon the irony of Mme Arpel’s forms (Leo Tolstoy’s work, for instance, work to proffer a critique of contemporary an emphatic indictment of the role played exclamation. In one scene, the family and emphatically endorses the brand of anar- systems of control and the condition of hu- by increased technologisation in aggra- their unfortunate guests hilariously pick chism espoused by Peter Kropotkin), few man life under such systems. It is our con- vating this subtraction. This critique mani- their way through the labyrinth of path- artists have proceeded beyond the mere tention here, however, that French auteur fests itself in the persistent organisation, ways, grotesquely contorting as they try thematic representation of anarchism and and comedian Jacques Tati (1907 – 1982) circumscription and conduction of move- to adhere to arbitrarily designated routes. sought to introduce these principal currents is one such artist.1 In what follows we will ment in suburban and industrial zones: in In another M. Arpel takes Hulot aside and, of anarchistic thought into the very funda- elucidate his anarchist’s vision of the fate of Tati’s vision of the modern town, agency while pacing up and down an absurdly 4 5 ments of the art work itself. Few anarchist man under authority. withdraws behind a veil of conscription complicated route of stepping stones, One+One Filmmakers Journal

condemns Hulot’s lack of direction and somatic geometry – the absurd gymnas- offers him a job in the rubber factory as tics demanded of the human body as it a solution. The impressive gymnastics de- struggles to survive in spaces scored with manded of Hulot as he attempts to follow abstract, artificial regimes of control. Yet Arpel’s path will, we are led to infer, also the modern world’s constrictions are fre- be demanded of him once his life is direct- quently thrown into relief by the distinct ed into the home – school – work conduit lack of organisation which persists in the so familiar to the modern labourer. older part of town, where markings upon Exacerbating the withdrawal of agen- the road direct only children’s games of cy from human subjects is modernity’s hopscotch. The openness of the town growing fascination with every new square allows bodies to meander, encour- form of technology. The Arpels’ house, aging them to follow no strict orientation for instance, is a perfect example of the save their own, to deviate, cross each oth- modern technological obsession made er’s paths, stop altogether to converse… manifest: pull a lever and the garden gate The haphazard arrangement of Hulot’s opens; approach the cupboard and its apartment building, meanwhile, offers a door opens automatically; press a button compelling antithesis to houses in the and a steak flips over on the frying pan… suburbs. Its organic construction facili- Yet while these devices make domestic tates the needs of the individual, while still chores easier, they are ultimately just so allowing for shared space, and its rooms, Still from Mon Oncle many instances of the progressive erosion foyers, and stairwells appear cobbled to- of individual autonomy: the Arpels never gether as endogenous expressions of hu- uniform lengths of red rubber pipe at the plumbing to the Arpel’s fountain, flood- man will (and necessity) rather “Plastac” plant, his intercession imme- ing the garden. His small interruption not than abstract forms, applied diately introduces variety and variation, only quickly renders proper pathways of “ The submission of one’s sovereign from without to which human producing fat piping, thin piping, piping the garden superfluous (while trying to agency to a multitude of technologi- will must bend. like strings of sausages… In an interview catch the wayward dogs, guests sprint cal devices such as these is, to an Hulot himself is also in- in Les Cahiers du Cinéma with André across the garden with abandon), but anarchist like Tati, an insidious devel- ured to modernity’s insistence Bazin and François Truffaut, Tati may prompts the guests’ behaviour itself to opment indeed upon proper order and strict have said that, in contrast to Chaplin’s deviate from previously prescribed pat- ” teleology, sliding mutely be- tramp, “Hulot doesn’t invent anything,”4 terns and conduits – they chat with one tween and around its forms but his actions, nonetheless, enact a another, they laugh, they clap and cheer do anything. In a world which demands of prescription and control in a kind of kind of creative destruction, releas- each other on.5 Their transgression is that individual will be routinely sacrificed improvised ballet of his own design. For ing people and objects from their pre- our delight: just as the boy Gérard and to a universal trajectory and where that instance, he and the female interviewer at scribed purposes. Before Hulot arrives his mates derive unadulterated joy from sacrifice is so normalised that, even in the “Coal By-Products” company circle a at M. and Mme Arpel’s garden party, for seeing passers-by diverted from their de- their private lives, individuals strive for spectral (and voyeuristic) third party, in- example, the atmosphere is inhibited, cided course (a whistle in their direction self-control and self-regulation, the sub- advertently ushered into the room when staid and painfully boring (guests infre- is enough to send them careering into a mission of one’s sovereign agency to a Hulot steps in a pile of lime, removes his quently emit the dullest of expressions lamppost), we can’t help but laugh to see multitude of technological devices such shoe, then accidentally leaves a trail of like “we produced 40,000 metres of pip- the normative constraints of home and as these is, to an anarchist like Tati, an in- white shoeprints on the chair and desk.3 ing: a considerable achievement!”). But work in tattered ruins. sidious development indeed. A vector of chaos (read: anarchy), Hulot Hulot arrives and, while looking for a draws transverse loci across the drab, place to plant an oddly-shaped glass- Anarchy is kids’ stuff No exit! desiccated passages of modern life and holder, stabs a hole right through the Hyper-technologised modernity, accord- 6 7 This, then, is the outline of modern life’s its forms: charged with producing endless, One+One Filmmakers Journal

ing to Tati’s vision, yields only coldness by manipulating the banal, adult world into and cruelty, stripping individuals of their appearing as objects or situations drawn The New Epic Theater of free will and channelling natural produc- from the child’s world. Inanimate objects, tivity into industrialised production. The for example, are infused with life and take Brent Green form of life that this artificiality supplants on unexpected forms: at the “Plastac” exudes vitality and warmth, its mainte- factory the red rubber hose appears to nance of social bonds between individu- carefully snake by a sleeping Hulot and als arising out of camaraderie and a volun- similarly, as Hulot clumsily sneaks into Donna K tary commitment to social cohesion rather their garden, windows of the Arpel’s house than a desire for exploitation or social mo- appear as a pair of giant, watchful eyes. If bility. Yet, as the final scenes ofMon Oncle this is the case, however, one has to won- appear to indicate, the process by which der if Tati’s programme might still be an modern man is divested of his will is by no effective means of achieving anarchist re- means irreversible and here the figure of demption in a 21st century world. When the child becomes important. lo-fi advertising systematically infantilises If the character of Hulot intervenes at the viewing public and persistently at- certain junctures in order to introduce al- tempts to induce generalised regression teration into modernity’s strictures (anar- to sell the kind of products which caused chy made flesh, as it were), the figure of Tati concern, it may now be impossible for the child evokes an anarchistic pre-lap- us to comprehend the radical transforma- sarian purity, largely serving as Mon On- tive potential he envisaged. cle’s transcendent externality. Throughout the film the director regards them with Diamuid Hester6 a kind of awe and their assured expres- sion of individual will irrespective of social context is brandished as exemplary: re- 1. This is a pretty unorthodox interpretation of Tati. With the no- awakening a shadow of this childlike wil- table exception of Laurent Marie’s “Jacques Tati’s Playtime as fulness, Tati appears to suggest, might be New Babylon” (in Cinema and the City. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001) which reads Tati’s vision of Paris in Playtime (1967) with spatial a crucial step towards recovering man’s theories from the Situationist International, to my knowledge, lost autonomy. For M. Arpel, for instance, no other work explicitly aligns Tati with an anarchist tradition. simply finding himself part of an uninten- 2. Tolstoy, L. “The End of the Age (On the Approaching Revo- lution),” available at: http://www.nonresistance.org/docs_pdf/ tional, childish prank (whistling to Hulot, Tolstoy/End_of_Age.pdf

he sends another hapless gent careering 3. Like most of Tati’s visual gags, a textual description doesn’t into another unseen lamppost) is enough capture a modicum of the humour and originality of this scene. Nevertheless, I hope this may be adequately evocative that to stir in him an appetite for dissent and, those unfamiliar with Mon Oncle might be more inclined, when they watch it, to pay particular attention to this finely crafted in defiance of yet more road markings, he scene. leaves the ferry car park by the entrance. Bertolt Brecht 4. Bazin, A. with François Truffaut. “Entretien avec Jacques A small rebellion, perhaps, but significant. Tati,” Cahiers du Cinéma (Mai 1958), pp. 2-20.

Indeed, one could argue that the entire- 5. A similar situation presents itself in Tati’s subsequent film, In the middle of 2008 I fielded a lot of e- mid-section of the huge American state ty of Tati’s oeuvre is designed to awaken Playtime: with the introduction of Hulot, the elegant and chic mailed concerns and phone calls when I which, in retrospect, does seem like a restaurant, “The Royal Garden,” quickly morphs into a raucous in the audience members themselves a nightclub reminiscent of the village café in Jour de Fête. moved out to the middle of rural Pennsyl- pretty drastic change! When I moved to

childlike sense of glee which might, per- 6. Diarmuid Hester is a graduate of the Centre for Research in vania abandoning my city life as a Brook- New York I was looking for some kind of haps, be mobilised towards this end. The Modern European Philosophy and a doctoral candidate in Eng- lyn New York cubicle dweller. I moved to feeling, some overwhelming city-centric 8 lish at the University of Sussex. He lives in Brighton and blogs 9 majority of his visual gags function simply at schoolboyerrors.wordpress.com. Pennsyltucky to be exact, the Republican zeitgeist that I had read about.