When he has to contact an American official in the French capital, Monsieur Hulot finds himself perplexed by the complexity of a gadget-filled Paris. He gets lost in the city’s maze of modern architecture, and roams around with some American tourists, ending up causing a lot of chaos.

In this daring masterpiece, Jacques Tati expands his critique of societal conformity to a majestic scale. Built over three years, his colossal set—known as Tativille—presents a glass-and-concrete vision of Paris, in which ennui and chaos wondrously melt into an idiosyncratic symphony of modern life.