One of Jacques Tati's most memorable movies from 1971.

(Somewhere shown under title "Traffic", but I didn't want to put it there, because this is the original title, also often recognized and used elsewhere, and if I'd call it "Traffic" it'd be easy to mix this up with the movie from 2000 =)

Trafic is an interesting comedy because it needs relatively little speech to work - because it finds things to laugh at not from the people or their gags, but rather from the creations of humankind. Specifically, the cars. Trafic is mostly a collection of humorous things that generally seem to plague the cars and traffic.

There is a plot, however. A big car show is opening in Amsterdam, and Altra Motors (in France) needs to show their new feature-packed camping van there. The folks at Altra (along with its designer Hulot, played, of course, by Jaques Tati himself) pack the car and get ready to take it to show, but... well, it isn't always easy. Everything from flat tires to running out of gas delay the people from getting to the show. (Meanwhile, a representative of Altra has already set up the area at the car show - bringing the show some unusual background sounds.)

One of the themes of the movie is how the cars tend to look like people who drive them, and how people end up looking like their cars and forming the habits around them. It does have a slight warning against the growth of car technology... but above all, it's a honest, good comedy.

(The car crash scene is definitely ever-memorable. Oh, and the scene in the customs probably helped France and Benelux countries to decide to join the EU... =)

(Should write a fuller review, but it's been a while since I saw this, and the movie isn't available here on DVD and it's not l33t enough to be available on warez networx. I hope I find it to take another look at it...)

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