We’re constantly told to slow down and be present, but what does it actually mean to pay attention when so much of modern life is designed to scatter it?
This summer, French auteur Jacques Tati returns to LAB111 in six newly restored 4K classics, including his magnum opus PlayTime. Few filmmakers have looked at modern life with Tati’s comic precision: traffic becomes choreography, bureaucracy becomes absurd theatre and the city itself becomes a machine for distraction.
Producer Elliot Bloom and filmmaker Kiriko Mechanicus explore attention, bureaucracy and urban life through Tati’s PlayTime, Kurosawa’s Ikiru and Scorsese’s After Hours, looking at what happens when the structures of modern life become so consuming that we stop noticing the lives we’re actually living.
But if paying attention has become something we increasingly struggle to do, what should we make of films that turn it into a virtue? In Perfect Days, is noticing the world a genuine alternative to modern life — or are we fetishising attention itself?
Get tickets to It’s Cinema! The Films of Jacques Tati @ LAB111
Get tickets to After Hours @ LAB111
Get tickets to Cine Of The Times: No Country For Old Men @ LAB111
A LAB111 production. Edited and produced by Elliot Bloom, co-produced by Laura Gommans. Music by Hugo Emmerzael. Artwork by Studio FFF.
This week, Elliot and Kiriko dive into the legendary world of Akira Kurosawa—Japan’s master filmmaker and, let’s be honest, probably your favorite director’s favorite director. From samurai epics like Seven Samurai and Rashomon to powerful character dramas like Ikiru and High and Low, Kurosawa knew how to tell a story that hits you in the heart and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
They unpack the big questions his films tackle—truth, justice, mortality—and connect the dots between Kurosawa’s personal life and the unforgettable worlds he brought to the screen. Whether you’re a longtime fan or just Kurosawa-curious, this episode is a love letter to one of cinema’s all-time greats—and a reminder that great storytelling never goes out of style.
Get tickets to The Films of Kurosawa @ LAB111