PlayTime is Jacque Tati’s masterpiece. You will find it in top 100s and encounter essays both written and visual that expound on the comedic genius of Tati and his character Monsieur Hulot, stumbling through and tripping over a heightened, present-future version of ‘60s Paris. It competes with the best work of giants like Chaplin, Keaton and Marx. It is, perhaps, the most rewatchable movie, every frame dense with details that overlap and collide in precisely composed chaos in observation of the way modernity and consumerism shape cities and the lives of their inhabitants.

A screening around Valentine’s Day is a Rooftop Cinema tradition and with new locations come new horizons. No disrespect to the holy Ephron–Ryan–Hanks triumvirate but this time the occasion calls for director writer, editor, production designer, art director, costume designer and composer Anna Biller’s pastiche of low-budget ’60s and ’70s horror wherein Samantha Robinson plays a (possibly murderous) witch whose love spells and romantic incantations work a little too well while she’s searching for the perfect man. A feminist appropriation of genre tropes and a masterpiece in present-day retro styling that drips with lurid Technicolor hues. So much fun.

Inspired by the Hair Salon installation at Parkade, Rooftop Cinema screens Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. It’s a story about love, grief, alienation and conformity but bottom line it’s ultimately about a guy who is really, really good at cutting hair. It’s the film that most successfully injects Tim Burton’s gothic fixations and fairytale fascinations into Hollywood filmmaking. And what better place to take in a gothic fairytale than a repurposed car park?

This screening commemorates both International Women’s Day and Agnès Varda, whose departure absence is still keenly felt nearly two years after her passing. Cléo from 5 to 7 is her most well-known film, premiering in 1962 shoulder-to-shoulder with Jules and Jim, Last Year at Marienbad and Breathless in the exhilarating first rush of releases from the French New Wave. The real-time meander of Cléo (Corinne Marchand) through Paris as she awaits the results of a biopsy remains as vital as the day it was released, exploring the way women see and are seen. A beautiful film about how we perceive beauty.

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There is no bigger name in industrial design than Dieter Rams. Maybe Jony Ive, but who deserves the credit more: the originator or the duplicator? The influence of Ram’s work – principally at German consumer products company Braun – and “less, but better” ethos has had a profound effect on the trajectory of modern design as a whole – not just at Cupertino. This film about his life, work and ten principles of good design is directed by Gary Hustwit. His documentaries Helvetica, Objectified, Urbanized and Workplace explore the ways people shape the world through design. Now a single, singular person gets the treatment in Rams.