Playing around mid-century modern style part 2: The Bellboy (1960)

I'm always amazed how many Jerry Lewis films I have in my collection. This is the easiest one to defend. Filmed on location in Miami at the gorgeous Fontainbleau Hotel, this is pretty easy to enjoy. The hotel is really almost a leading character, with plenty of views of the imaginative luxury architect Ted Lapidus poured in it. It was sort of a movie in and of itself, so it's natural that Lewis, when staying there, could grasp its merits as a backdrop. The film has very little dialogue, and it's quite short. A Stan laurel look-alike keeps popping up, and it's quite telling, as this is actually old-fashioned material. But it works more often than not. Anybody who enjoys how things looked and felt mid-century will find this hugely enjoyable. And the jokes pass by amiably, if there's one that misfires the next one may make you smile.

Playing around mid-century modern style part 1: Play Time (France 1967)

I recently watched two films that used mid-century modern architecture and style as a setting for comic purposes. They both were highly successful and a wonderful time machines for enthusiasts of the era. The first was Jacques Tati's 1967 Play Time. An enormously ambitious (and expensive) project, it plants Tati's Monsieur Hulot in a stark glass and stainless steel wonderland of ultra-modern confusion. The comedy is subtle and clever, with an ambling pace that balances a sense of amusement with a sort of awe at the modern world. Absurd scenarios play out in the form of interweaving characters who walk in and out of the story in a natural pace, with overlapping dialogue. The Hulot character is actually marginalized, which might disappoint fans of the earlier Tati comedies. The perspectives and scenarios play with scale and are without equal, all photographed in stunning 70mm. This Criterion Collection release has a remarkable second disc that illustrates how Tati went about building this city setting expressly for the film. It was so expensive that it lost money.