Parade

Synopsis

Jacques Tati's last – and least known – film Parade sees his return to the boisterous music hall world in which he began his career as a mime artist in the 1930s. Ostensibly nothing more than a series of circus acts hosted by Tati and preformed for a family audience, Parade is in fact a brilliantly conceived spectacle which blurs all distinctions between performers and audience, accomplished acrobats and children at play. Offering gloriously funny visual gags that flow beautifully from one act to another – including several of his most famous pantomimes – Parade is the perfect stage for Tati's comic genius.

"It's a sign of this film's greatness that the enormous sadness that accompanies the final leave-taking of the circus interior is a good deal more than the conclusion of an unpretentious evening's entertainments; it's a sublime and awesome coda to the career of one of this century's greatest artists." – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Special Features

- Interview with Tati, filmed in London 1977 (20 mins)
- Booklet with essays by Philip Kemp and Jonathan Rosenbaum, biography and credits.