Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1954)

Please don't spend money on this.

Overrated

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Like the man said if you're going to steal then steal from the best, something Jacques Tati took to heart, it seems clear he spent his youth screening one Buster Keaton movie after another and then starting again from the beginning until he'd mastered every sight gag, every move, every iota of comic timing from a master and then done his inept best to imitate it. He does, of course, rate top Brownie Points for taste and lesser Brownie Points for Effort but it's not enough to admire the Eiffel Tower to the extent that it inspires you to design and build one of your own, the trick is not just to replicate but to excel and come up with a better tower than the original. This is not to say that this movie lacks entertainment value in fact if you've never heard of or actually seen even a mediocre Buster Keaton movie and dig slapstick then chances are you'll enjoy this. Alas, I have seen the odd Buster Keaton movie ...

I don't know where I stand with regard to Jaques Tati. Since I first saw 'Les Vacances' when I was a teenager I knew he was a bit different from most other comic actors/writers. However, I don't think he is worth the over-the-top praise he sometimes gets. I now have the box-set of his films from BFI, and we are watching them in chronological order. 'Jour de Fete' is delightful, but Tati's style wasn't yet polished. He reaches his peak with 'Vacances' and 'Mon Oncle' in my view. I'm so glad he stuck to black & white photography for this film, I maintain that it captures the heat and light of a summer's day better than any colour process. Combined with the easy jazz music (very French) and the sound of distant voices on the beach, it conjures up a sunny holiday so well. Most of the humour is pretty low-key and incidental (just as Tati intended) but there are some flashes of real laugh-out-loud occurrences. One is where he is wearing the rambler's back-pack and the stopper pops out of the thermos flask and knocks his hat off. I wonder how many goes they had at that? The restoration is excellent. The image is clear, clean and stable and most of the scratches and dirt have been banished. I'm glad the team did not do any more, as it can lead to the final result looking more like video tape rather than film (witness many of the restored MGM musicals). One to savour occasionally.

One of the most famous French comedies of all time, Tati's Monsieur Hulot's Holiday is an interesting farce that explores human nature.Much of the film is filled with slapstick pratfalls and one's enjoyment will depend on how much appreciation one has for that kind of comedy but, more subtly, there is much observational comedy, too, and the film relishes in mocking the traits of certain classes of people who cannot leave their behind the facades of their social roles, even whilst on holiday together.Whether or not one likes his style of comedy, it cannot be denied that Tati's timing is brilliant and the climactic scene involving what lies at the end of the hose proves him to be possibly the unluckiest character of all time.Interestingly, the cinematography is often static and there can be as much occurring to characters in the background as those taking centre stage, again emphasising the observational nature of much of the comedy on display here.Music, lighting and other effects are minimal and the film moves to a light tempo, reflecting the holiday mood, before building to its sudden climax.Ultimately, there is no doubt that this film is greatly overrated, yet it is also a showcase of a certain style of French comedy. Depending on your appreciation for it, you may or may not derive a lot of enjoyment from this film.

Jacques Tati made a few short films in the 1930-40's, but in 1949 made his first full-length feature film, Jour de fete. Despite the wishes of his producer, Tati decided to leave his Francais the mailman character behind and developed a new character, Monsieur Hulot. He had no idea how much attention the film would get and therefore wasn't going to continue making films around this character. Well we all know this didn't happen, after Mr. Hulot's Holiday Jacques Tati still made four other 'Hulot' films. Mr. Hulot's Holiday ironically described mass tourism and it's a great example of Tati's satire, which exudes intelligence.The story takes place in a holiday resort in a small French seaside town. The guests in the hotel are normal; businessmen, elderly couples, young people, all sorts of people. They all act as people usually act on a vacation; they play bridge, try new activities, read, eat and relax. But then Mr. Hulot arrives, who very hardly tries to do these things considered to be normal, but fails miserably.Jacques Tati's first full-length film, Jour de fete (1949) was a tribute to the burlesque genre and his other films can be described with that word too. But one must realize that his films certainly aren't ordinary compared to other burlesque comedies by Chaplin, Lloyd, Marx bros or Keaton. He completely rejects the traditional formula of it; the two main characters don't marry each other in the end, the dialog doesn't make sense and there is no direct plot for the viewer to follow. But this certainly doesn't mean Tati and for instance Chaplin wouldn't have anything in common, they have a lot of in common. Just as Chaplin so doesn't Tati care that much about dialog; it mostly just expressed the difficulties of communication. Just as Chaplin so did Tati have an own standard character - both the tramp and Mr. Hulot are comical heroes, who make the people around them look ridiculous. Both of the characters that Dostoyevsky's Idiot has: they're individuals who seem like idiots to others, but like geniuses to others. As did Dostoyevsky so did Jacques Tati portray a world where a sanatorium is the only place for a saintJacques Tati plans his gags for years. Many film historians, researchers and critics have written several studies about them. I'd like to point out the opening scene of Mr. Hulot's Holiday, which has often been praised as one of the most brilliant scenes made in the history of cinema: We see a boat and waves hitting it - a peaceful beach. Then Jacques Tati suddenly takes us to a railway station where people try to catch the right train. We hear absurd announcements and see the tourists floating from one platform to another. This violent contrast of course, makes us think about the connection between them; the people are coming to destroy the peace of the beach, they're coming to turn it to a hectic place just like the railway station. But this contrast is also very poetic; if one pays attention one will notice that the waves float exactly in the same way the tourists float from one platform to another. The people always come in the same order to the platform and this refers to the mechanization of life. In Jacques Tati's films he often puts dialog in an absurd place: in the opening scene the people try and try to listen what the announcements are saying, but end up running insanely back and forth. I think by this Jacques Tati wants to say us that if we try to only follow the words in cinema (in life) we'll end up just like the tourists.The sound world of Jacques Tati is very rich and even that he doesn't 'believe' in dialog, he uses narrative based on sounds a lot. And the relation between the picture and the sound is perfect. His visual gags are geographically perfect and his satire which exudes intelligence is full of hilarious gags about objects and vehicles. In addition to this Jacques Tati has a great talent of observing: just with few short shots he manages to tell us the main points of the situation.Mr. Hulot's Holiday is an ironic description of mass tourism and it elegantly criticizes the destruction of old habitat. It shows us how order and disorder work - this can be seen clearly in the opening scene. Even that Jacques Tati's production is one of the most compact ones he is always seen in the lists of the world's greatest directors. With only four films he managed to create an unforgettable character, Mr. Hulot. I can highly recommend you to watch the other Hulot films as well: Mon oncle, Play Time and last but not least Trafic.