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Reviews (8)

Another Tati ' s pearl!
As you know, Monsieur Hulot is one of the designers of the Automobile Factory ALTRA,that intends to present its new model in the announced fair. All the film I around Hulot ' s voyage accompanied of a truck driver and a lovable young female Executive. But as you can guess this voyage will be seriously troubled funnily talking.
A joyous romp
Although not Tati's best film, it's my favorite. The amusing technology is obviously aged now, it nevertheless is still a joyous centerpiece to this misadventurous trip from factory to car show. If you like Tati (an acquired taste for many), you'll be enchanted by this hard to find film.

They're all great!
I just hope this'll be out on DVD sometime soon. Some think this film is a bit too slow, or not as wonderful and inspired as the earlier films. That's kind of like saying Beethoven's 7th is not quite as good as his 5th or the Mona Lisa just doesn't have the same visual punch as the Last Supper. Jeepers, this is Tati we're talking about--a comedic genius who made uncompromising and meticulously crafted films, a guy who raised comedy to a height that no one since has dared or been able to match.
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Subjects:  1. Comedy    2. Comedy Video    3. Drama    4. Foreign Film - French    5. Movie   

Editorial Review

Forefather of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean, Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot--a recurring character in several of his movies--is a blithely clumsy troublemaker, an insouciant twit who leaves uproar in his wake without being aware of it. Trying to describe this 1953 comedy is next to impossible except to say it is a series of vignettes at a vacation resort, with the distracted Hulot providing a lot of laughs. Tati directs, and in a way what that really means is that he composes this movie with a perfect eye and ear for the comic possibilities in everything: composition, lighting, minimal marble-mouth dialogue, certain sounds (a duck call, a door repeatedly opening and shutting). This is a superior work that ranks among all-time classic comedies. Read more

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• Black & White
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Reviews (43)

passed ages-passed showcases
I simply spent time watchnig this French response to a Chaplin-style but non-silent motion picture.
Hulot
Jacques Tati is one of those guys with a natural gift for the physical gag. This DVD features his holiday, as the title would imply. We meet some vacationers at a beach resort, and the filmmaker revels in that. Then Tati appears on the scene, M. Hulot in all his glory, and wreaks havoc. I thought it might have been a little slow getting started, but it was building. It's a marvelous film.
M. Hulot On Vacation: A Beautiful, Gentle Film By Jacques Tati
Chaos follows Monsieur Hulot like tin cans tied to your ankle. He's a lanky, awkward, well-intentioned innocent to whom things just naturally happen, and to whom things happen to those around him. Hulot is the creation of Jacques Tati, a genius of film if there ever was one. Tati creates movies of endless sight gags, but that term is too coarse to describe what Tati does. With Hulot and those he encounters, things are never what they seem. The usual and the commonplace grow into sources of humor that sometimes are quick and sometimes are carefully nurtured. What makes discussing Tati difficult, at least for me, is that the more I try to describe what he does, the more mundane it seems. I'll show you. A small child gives some money to an ice cream vendor and receives two cones. The child then carefully climbs the too-steep stairs to the entrance of a small hotel, carefully, carefully checking at each step to be sure he's got the cones upright so the ice cream won't fall off. The scene is funny in a good-natured way because of the child's intensity. Or Hulot encounters a kayak on the beach, sits down in it and notices a pot of paint next to him. He picks up the brush and starts daubing. The waves come in, the pot drifts out, then drifts back in time for Hulot, without looking, to get more paint on the brush. The pot drifts out again on the next wave, but then drifts back on the other side of the kayak. Sounds dull to me, but Tati turns it into an exquisite moment of good intentions, mystifying discovery and immaculate timing.
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Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Foreign Film - French    3. Movie   

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (1)

An Array of Circus Pandemonium
Jacques Tati is the ringleader and showman in one of his last films, PARADE.The film does have the same format as Tati's past films, but rather appears to be an 85-minute French TV variety show of circus acts that Tati presents to an audience, such as symphony performers who do acrobatic feats as well as flamenco dancers, and many more.The film may have ran a little too long.
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Subjects:  1. Childrens    2. Comedy Video    3. Foreign Film - French    4. International    5. Movie   

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• NTSC

Reviews (1)

Memorable French Comedy!
Tati , the inimitable runs afoul of the modern mechanized world .An extraordinary pantomime reminiscent of the silent comedy days.
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Subjects:  1. Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy    2. Movie   

Editorial Review

A comic masterpiece from director-star Jacques Tati (Read more

Features

• Color
• Original recording reissued
• Original recording remastered
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Reviews (38)

Such a Beautiful Film
"I fail to understand how a film can be called boring, when it is so full of life, and witty observations. Rather than feeling that it was too long, I was sorry when it was over."
tati looks like a 1950s chuck jones cartoon -- but thats good!
jacques tati takes on the modern world in his second sally as the perpetually bewildered mr hulot. while the movie is very funny in its pokes at modernism (highlighted by the house of hulots sister with its newfangled "conveniences" and its hilarious spouting dolphin fountain), it drags some of its jokes out a tad too long, and several scenes (notably the garden party) would have benefited by judicious paring. still, the movie demands to be seen by anyone who is a fan of classic comedy.
Slapstick wisdom
After finally catching Mon Oncle (long on my list of movies I'm supposed to see), it's clear to me that there's no one who won't enjoy the movie.From its rakish bookending sequences of dogs running around a modernized French town, Mon Oncle sets itself up as the comedy that sniffs the ground, as the movie to take aim at the bizarre confines of modern society.That it is an indelible critique of the bizarre trappings of modernity is nice, that it does so as a whimsical and effusive slapstick confection makes it perfect - following Mr. Hulot from one bizarre comic encounter with the harsh and illusory modern world to another, Mon Oncle is all the more charming because of its vantage point.Hulot is simply good natured - a jolly and misunderstood cartoon character of a man who you love all the more because of his refusal to criticize, because of his acceptance of all.That the backdrop of his sister's house, where much of the action takes place, is a stylized monstrosity in which kitchen utensils leap to life at a push of a button, people greet each other moving in opposite directions, and neighbors can be mistaken for rug salesmen only makes you revel in Hulot's outsider goodwill.As Mon Oncle nears 50, its importance as a fable of fond authenticity cannot be overstated - it's a movie whose timeless confusion at culture at large is both important and unnoticeable in the presence of its comic charm. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedy Video    2. Foreign Film - French    3. Foreign Film [Dub Or Subtitle]    4. Movie   

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (9)

Finally out of the hands of ebay weasels
Ahhhhh...finally, available for under $200, and with more and better features. Sit back, relax, and let it take over...

A semi-documentary
It's odd to see people complaining about the lack of "plot" in a film. The same person would not even dream of complaining of the lack of plot in a poem or in some modern novel. But for whatever reason feature films must have "plot". Go figure. For those who insist on plot perhaps the best suggestion is: pretend you are about to watch a documentary. Observe what's happening. BTW, that other reflection in the glass door is not the US Capitol but the Sacre Coeur in Paris.

The Best Tati DVD Release Ever!!!
Now that the three great Hulot films have been rereleased by Criterion, we can enjoy them in pristine quality and for an affordable price... but the new Playtime DVD has been completely updated to a two disc set and warrants a new review of its own.
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Subjects:  1. Childrens    2. Foreign Film - French    3. Movie