IT'S PLAYTIME! It's back! It's back! Playtime, Jacques Tati's 1967 movie masterpiece, will return to Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater from Wednesday, December 29 through Wednesday, January 5--in a brand new 70mm print!

David Ng calls Tati "one of the great comic icons of French cinema, a Gallic equivalent of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton." When Tati made Playtime--a process that took many years--he was already well-known for playing Monsieur Hulot, who makes a return appearance in the film.

Much of the fun of seeing Playtime in a theater comes from scanning the big screen for signs of Tati's abundant yet subtle visual wit. When I first saw Playtime at the Walter Reade, moviegoers teamed up like tourists on a camera safari to spot Tati's cinematic gags. It was a wonderful experience.

As frenchculture.org describes it, Tati's film "takes place on a vast labyrinthine set (dubbed Tativille), where gags proliferate with such rapidity and in so many areas of the screen, that it is impossible to catch them all in one viewing."

According to Noël Burch in Theory of Film Practice, Tati's film is "the first in the history of cinema that not only must be seen several times, but also must be viewed from several different distances from the screen."

So make time for Playtime if you can.

For Manhattan scheduling information and another synopsis, check the Walter Reade website. After the screenings in New York City, this special movie will also play in Raleigh, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Minneapolis, according to Criterion.