[muglo] Re: slightly OT

--- On Tue, 2/24/09, Karl Hochmann <k.hochmann@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Doug, did you happen to view channel 52 at high noon today?
> Jacque  
> Tati was on. I am certain that you are a Tati lover, but if
> you are  
> missing one or two, try me.

I didn't see it, Karl, but would have loved to. I take it this was an interview 
with Tati, rather than one of his films. I saw the other day that the Central 
Library has a DVD of Mr. Hulo at Work (or some such title; I take it to be the 
one in which he winds up in a factory being overwhelmed by the assembly line, 
etc.). I wasn't interested in seeing the movie again, but may take the DVD out 
for the sake of the included featurette, which is an interview with Tati; I've 
never seen him out of character.

You're quite right, I do admire his films. I've seen all of them - Les Vacances 
de M Hulo I've probably seen a dozen times or more. I gather it's only recently 
been released on DVD; it hadn't yet come out when I made inquiries about it in 
Paris in '06. I don't know about the others, but I think Traffic and Mon Oncle 
are on DVD now too, and possibly Playtime.

He's a bit of a special taste, isn't he? I've never yet met a woman who liked 
any of his work, and few men for that matter. I'm married for the third time 
and neither my present wife nor either of her predecessors could see anything 
at all funny in even Les Vacances. 

Years ago, I discovered that a colleague in The Free Press newsroom was wildly 
enthusiastic about that particular film and when we learned that it was being 
shown in one of the art cinemas in Toronto, we arranged to get the night off 
and to take our wives and our two teenaged daughters, none of whom had ever 
seen it. We sang its praises to them all the way there, and arrived to find 
that apart from us the only two other people in the auditorium were a fellow 
our age (mid-forties at the time, I suppose) and his considerably younger, very 
attractive date. Well, the film started, and my friend and I and the other 
fellow were in stitches all through it, and trying to ensure that our 
respective women appreciated all the funniest bits. Instead, not one of them so 
much as cracked a smile from beginning to end. All of them kept looking at each 
other - sisters in adversity - as if wondering how they had come to be saddled 
with such ridiculous husbands and
 fathers.

Our wives and daughters had little choice but to come back to London with us 
and go on putting up with us, but I don't suppose the other fellow managed to 
persuade his date ever to go out with him again.

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