Review of Mon Oncle (1958) by Amal H — 18 Mar 2011

Of all the movies I watched in last couple of years Mon Oncle by jacques tati holds a very special place owing not just for to its simple and elegent filmmaking but more for its content. This is a movie which has Sectioned several concepts that had been introduced to me in the last 4 1/2 years I spent "learning" Architecture. There had been several movies made on the way human greed , his constant efforts to outsmart his world alienates him. Industrial revolution, gold mining, struggle for political power all has been used by numerous filmmakers to point out this aspect of human. But none of them I must say has been half as effective as this satire . Tati brings to our attention, not any of the above mentioned disasters but much more harmless and silent villain that keeps people apart - modernism. There hasnâ??t been any other movement which inspired people to strive for efficiency and comfort to such a level that we forgot how all those tiny inconveniences kept people together.

Two worlds are explored in the movie.

One is a very cute, simple modernist house that catches everyones fancy the first time one sets eye on it. A small family with just a kid and his parents live in this house. Everything is very sleek, clever that it makes people as lazy as they can get. The house is bound by walls on all sides and monitored with an electric gate which keeps vendors and dogs out. Whenever someone rings the bell the housewife runs to the door in excitement and switches on a cheesy looking ( and supposedly smart)fish shaped fountain gushing water before she opens the gate. A curved pavement with gravel laid cleverly in square patterns around it compels the people entering inside to move only in a fixed path no matter what rush they are in . The electric gate keeps everyone except the "civilized" and the "clever " equals who just comes to chat about their new car or to showcase the latest fad . Cars move out from house along a set line to a factory everyday and parks exactly within a rectangle pointed by arrows. No one ever needs the help of another human in anything. Everything is perfectly planned, so clever that showcasing intelligence has grown more importance than any other human value.

The second world is a small unsophisticated neighborhood with very traditional rustic and inconvenient buildings. This one is inhabited by the main character Monsieur Hulot who I read is a regular protagoinist in tati movie. Things are much more alive around this world. People walk through wherever they want. They move across building building plots through broken compound walls. People help others park the car and end up in conversations There is a sequence in which Hulot enters his rented 3 storey apartment house and we watch him move from windows and openings as if through a maze to the highest level in his room and arrrive at a very improbable place. . Kids plays mischiefs on elders making them bump into misplaced lamp posts. These instantly forgiven mischieves and inconveniences somehow brings a certain life and movement to the street unlike the mordernist world where movement of vehicles is misinterpreted to activity and life.

Much of the movie dwells on the way Hulot finds it difficult to adjust with his brother in law's house , their customs, their unnecessary luxuries. There is a hilarious sequence in the later part of the movie where a luncheon in the neat little garden with pebbles and pool, turns into a disaster the scale of which has to be watched to believe. The movie ends with the father and son sharing a little mischief in the parking lot which betrays an intimacy lacking within the house.

Mon oncle is perhaps the most effective satire I have ever seen in my life probably owing to the way the director has taken pains to show the people living the story rather than make them say clever punchlines that usually satires these days has to resort to. Watch it when u r in mood to try a fun movie.

A must watch.

My rating - 5/5.

highly recommended.