Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967) is a masterpiece of cinema. It was co-written by, directed by, and starred the French mime-comic, reprising his role of Monsieur Hulot from earlier movies. Playtime satirises life in modern, consumerist Paris, as Hulot struggles with glass doors, lifts, and escalators; sterile apartments and partitioned offices; hotels and airports. The Hulot character was a hindrance for Tati, who wanted to transcend him but depended on his popularity for commercial viability. Hulot appears in the film, but he often becomes part of the scenery and disappears for long periods, seemingly lost in the modern world. Fake Hulots also appear, stressing Hulot’s avatar-like quality. Film programmer John Edmond will introduce this screening and discuss how the film—its modern-world mise-en-scene and its director’s love-hate relation with his character—informed James Barth’s recent video Stone Milker, currently on show at the IMA.