Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

It's probably easy to see this as just a relatively late occurrence of classic slapstick. In fact, the slapstick dimension is quite masterful. But there's a lot more to this movie than the comedic value of seeing someone get kicked. Part of the charm comes from the structure of the movie. Instead of a linear narrative or a series of sketches, it's a multi-dimensional portrait of different aspects of human nature. The "point" of the movie, if there is one (there's more likely a large array of "points" in this apparently simple comedy), isn't put out ostentatiously throughout the film. For instance, if Tati intended to admonish people to have some fun in life, it's not by showing how Hulot's having fun but by showing the respect fun may have with some people. There's also the purely aesthetic pleasure derived from a well-crafted movie. This one's fluid enough that nothing appears superfluous, from sun rays passing between drapes to one of Hulot's "accidental" gestures. Of course, there's a nostalgic value in watching such a movie. Not for 1950s France but for another era, however long ago, when insouciance might have been acceptable.

If you do not have the time or money to travel back to 1953 to spend a French holiday, you might as well just watch M. Hulot's Holiday. Honestly holidays are stressful and barely ever as good as you want them to be anyway, while this movie was much more than I expected it to be.

The humor in the film is warm, never condescending or patronizing to the characters. There is always the sense of fun. The movie really sells itself to me by not making Mr. Hulot a buffoon alone in the crowd. Circumstance and happening reveals everyone to be capable of situational humor, the accidents of the movie are shared with a laugh.

It is an observational movie, and the majority of the humor is not forced, neither upon us nor upon the movie itself. It merely shows how people can get involved in each others' lives, how funny the average day can be. It is like attending a family reunion, really. The camera does not stick itself to Mr. Hulot, but goes anywhere for a laugh. If a small boy is doing something funny, the camera will be there to capture it all, and then leave the boy. This would make another film feel large, but because there is no story to the film, because there is no main character to feel especially attached to, it always feels personal, it always feel like you are seeing something nobody else is.

Perhaps the best part is that the film sticks with you for days afterward, and soon Mr. Hulot's Holiday shows its real genius, as you start noticing similar things happening around you.

All Tati's films are a gentle poke in the ribs...Nothing wrong with that...Totally different performer to Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd...Those who compare him with them, know nothing of comedy..Tati dealt in observances, the others in pure slapstick where they were the ones to be looked at..Tati through his use of the camera and his setup's asked the audience to look at everything on the screen..At everything that was happening around the central character..Those who need their comedy force fed to them in huge exaggerated doses shouldn't watch a Tati film, I doubt whether their concentration spans would last the distance.

But then again, to ask some audiences (probably American) to appreciate a subtlety, is a very hard task indeed, especially if they have been raised on the cinema de tripe which comes out of Hollywood.

Mr Hulot goes to the seaside and madness ensues.

This is a funny funny film. Whether you see it in English or French makes no difference since the entire story is told visually, so much so that the dialog, what little there is, is not needed.

The laughs, when the come, are the sort to double you over with pain and tears in your eyes. Its wonderfully funny.

The problem that some people will have with the film is its pacing and plot. Actually there is no plot, its simply a collection of events while Hulot stays at the seaside resort. The pacing is leisurely with laughs coming after scenes of quiet beauty, and slice of life moments that seem to lead nowhere. Its like a week at the beach and moves at its own pace.

Despite what some may consider flaws THE FILM WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH. Which is all that matters. And even if you're someone like me who likes, but doesn't really love the film, you'll find yourself wanting to see this again simply to see what you missed and to marvel at the artistry (How did they do the floating paint can?)

7 out of 10.

A French classic every bit as funny as "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Except for missing the wonderfully amusing sound effects, this nearly silent film could be viewed with the sound on mute. Its plethora of homages to the great films of the silent era, meticulously executed slapstick and sight gags make me grin, smile broadly and laugh out loud every time I watch this Gallic masterpiece.

On a visual level alone, this movie works. Kids too young to understand anything about how movies are supposed to work laugh at the kayak, the fireworks, the tennis, at M. Hulot's gawky awkwardness, etc, etc.

It takes a bit more maturity, or perhaps immersion in Gallic sensibilities, to get all the underlying humor.

Whereas Monty Python takes more obvious pokes at the French, Tati's Hulot takes subtle swipes at the Brits and the Americans. It's 1953. The English speaking world has saved France from the Germans, but the French are losing the cultural battle not only to their liberator's language, but to their mechanized world. Hulot, the old French owl (note Tati's birdlike mannerisms), has become the awkward outsider in his own seaside resort. In that context, much of what might appear disjointed, takes on an appealing continuity. Ferreting it all out is like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Each viewing finds something new.

A film which improves with age and frequent viewing.