PlaytimeU

Directed by Jacques Tati | France | 1967 | 2h 4m | French w/ English subtitles | Starring Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Rita Maiden, France Rumilly, Valérie Camille

Jacques Tati’s dazzling modernist comedy turns the supposedly perfect city into a playground of bureaucratic absurdity. As Monsieur Hulot and a group of American tourists navigate a maze of glass, steel, offices, shops and restaurants, Playtime gently skewers the utopian promises of modern architecture, consumer culture and technological efficiency while finding unexpected freedom and human connection in the chaos.

This screening is presented in partnership with The Schwarzman Centre as part of their ‘Laughing at Utopia: Utopia & Satire Film Series’. The screening will be introduced by Oxford University speaker from the TORCH Humour Network, exploring its particular take on utopian dreams, social order and their comic undoing.

Reviews

‘Jacques Tati’s 1967 masterpiece still holds up as a feast of subtle sight gags, playful noise and, above all, visual wonders.’
★★★★★
Dave Calhoun, Time Out

‘For my money Playtime is the greatest film ever made.’
★★★★★
David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Book tickets

Tuesday 10 November

+ Intro / £6 for Members

 6.00pmBook tickets

What else is on?

Tomorrow (Sunday 8th November)
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14:30

The Big Heat 15
35mm Film Presentation
1h 29m
35mm: Films On Film
Homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands to bring down a crime syndicate after a fellow cop’s suspicious suicide. Fritz Lang’s 1953 noir is lean, angry and fatalistic, and one of the hardest-boiled films of the era. 35mm Film On Film Presentation.

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17:00

NTLive: Golden Boy 12A
2h 36m
Josh O’Connor leads the cast in this searing revival of Clifford Odets’ knockout American classic. Filmed live from the Almeida Theatre, Olivier Award-winner Sam Yates (Vanya) directs this propulsive drama exploring ambition, identity, and the high price of success.

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20:30

Fatherland 12A
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

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Monday 9th November
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17:45

Fatherland 12A
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

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20:00

Dead Souls Cert-TBC
+ Director Q&A
1h 28m
Arizona, 1890: a stranger named Strindler asks a small town to pay for the names of dead Mexican labourers. A meditative political Western from cult director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Moviedrome) who joins us for a Q&A after this one-off screening.

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23:00

Stewart Lee Live: Pea Green Boat 16+
An owl wakes at sea in a pea green boat, with a cat, its natural predator. And some honey. Stewart Lee’s darkly comic take on Lear’s poem comes with live improvised music, a Q&A and book signing. Late-night shows raising funds for #SaveTheUPP.

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Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!

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