PlayTime

One aspect of modernism viewed by the movie Playtime is the idea of conformity and dehumanization. Buildings and each unit in the buildings are shown to be indistinguishable with cubic shapes and straight lines, built with glass and steel.

wikipedia.com

People are conformed with similar kind of clothes, also with limited colour choice and tones. Shades of grey, blue, black and grayish white are predominant. Not only it homogenizes the people, it gives a dull machine look. In the movie, there's a scene showing that people look too much alike that they get called for wrong names

sensesofcinema.com

The dehumanization idea is shown mostly by the people's behaviours, for example, how they respond to time and the relationship between one another. In one beginning scene, people walk straight lines and turn on right angle. This robot manner presents how people are becoming less human like. Only construction workers and music lovers in the movie walk freely and naturally. This perhaps raises another discussion for class and rural v.s. urban (free v.s. conformed).

One of the main character, Monsieur Hulet is possibly the representation of the rural and 'us' the audience at that period of time. His character helps us see the futuristic world and the coming changes in a wider perspective as an outsider who steps back a bit and watch what was actually going on. Anything new or unnecessary in the modern society is seen as obstacles. Others (modernist people) are portrayed in a weird sense and lifelessly, noting that the freedom, the living are the noncomformity, the messiness and the human nature.