'Event-ing' Jacques Tati in Paris

Overview & Synopsis

This speech presents the exhibition about Jacques Tati (Paris, from april 2009) as an original example for designing the cinematic experience on a local scale. It will firstly depict how a film exhibition and a film-related materials exhibition can work together within a film museum at the Cinémathèque française. Then this study will consider all the other activities which will be organised in tandem with the "Jacques Tati" season in Paris, such as lectures, theatre pieces but also tours of other museums and visits to a recreated film set, as will be proposed to the audience following screenings. I will finally show how such a cultural program contributes to produce what can be called "an event", especially at a local scale, as well as how it deepens the knowledge of Tati's work. I suggest that the way this "event" involves activities which take place throughout Paris is tightly linked to in fact parallels, Tati's own films. Tati actually expressed how France went from being a rural state to an industrialized modernity after World War II. And what besides Paris, as a big and busy town, could best symbolise modernity in France? Musing upon potential responses to this question leads me to conclude that the cinematic experience is designed but also territorialized. This speech will be based amongst others on interviews with the organizers.