TRAFIC | Dir. Jacques Tati | 1971 | 98 min | PG

In Jacques Tati’s TRAFIC, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, kitted out as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’s highways and byways. In this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company’s director of design, and accompanies his new product (a “camping car” outfitted with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road there is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’s expert timing and sidesplitting knack for visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.

FESTIVAL EXPRESS | Dir. Bob Smeaton, Frank Cvitanovich | 90 min

On Saturday, September 12 Calgary Cinematheque presents a free outdoor screening of FESTIVAL EXPRESS, a 2003 music documentary. The filmed account of the Canadian rock festival train tour includes footage from the concert at McMahon Stadium in the summer of 1970. Some of the era's biggest rock stars participated in the multi-artist, multi-city concert tour including The Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy, and Janis Joplin in one of her last public performances. 

Calgarians who attended the 1970s concert can relive the experience in this little known film.