''Parade'' is a French

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

and was the final film directed by

Jacques Tati Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, filmmaker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted 46th (a list of the top 50 was ...

. ''Parade'' was made for Swedish television in 1974 and featured Tati as a clown in a circus.

History

Tati's finances were hit hard by the failure of ''

PlayTime ''Playtime'' (stylized as ''PlayTime'' and also written as ''Play Time'') is a 1967 Satire (film and television), satirical comedy film directed and co-written by Jacques Tati. Tati also stars in the film, reprising the role of Monsieur Hulot ...

'' to recover its enormous production costs, after which he sold his family residence.

James Quandt James Quandt is a Canadian film historian and festival programmer, best known as the longtime head programmer of the TIFF Cinematheque program of film retrospectives.Geoff Pevere, "The ghosts of cinema Cinematheque summer series Cinematheque's summe ...

, "Scatterbrained Angel: The Films of Jacques Tati". In ''The Complete Films of Jacques Tati'', Criterion Collection, booket, p. 25. ''Parade'' was released three years after '' Trafic'', which had been funded by Dutch capital; ''Parade'' was bankrolled by a Swedish television station and, because of the severe budget constraints, is much smaller in cinematic scope than both ''PlayTime'' and ''Trafic''. Gunnar Fischer, who had been director of photography on many of

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...

's films, handled the cinematography for ''Parade''. Filming took place at the Stockholm Cirkus in 1973 and employed a mixture of

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...

and 35mm stock. The film begins with a crowd of colorfully-dressed people filing into a theater that is being set up for a

clown A clown is a person who performs physical comedy and arts in an Improvisational theatre#Comedy, open-ended fashion, typically while wearing distinct cosmetics, makeup or costume, costuming and reversing social norm, folkway-norms. The art of ...

-themed performance. Tati, in the role of Monsieur Loyal, informs the audience that they are invited to be part of the show, which he calls "the parade". He serves essentially as emcee for a

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp� ...

that includes sight gags, mime, juggling, slapstick skits, dancing, animal acts, musical jokes, and magic tricks. At times, audience members participate in the festivities. The film was screened at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. It was released on Blu-ray in 2014 as part of the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...

's The Complete Jacques Tati box-set.

Reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing that it "has flashes of wit and style, but it's slow, offhand and meandering, and not Tati at his best." '' Time Out'' called it "An eccentric slice of light entertainment ring-mastered by Tati."

References

External links

* 1974 television films 1974 films French comedy television films Swedish television films 1970s French-language films 1974 comedy films Films directed by Jacques Tati Circus films 1970s French films {{1970s-France-film-stub