Review of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) by Devon B — 15 May 2012
Writer, director and actor Jacques Tati invites us to glimpse into his strange little world in "Mr. Hulot's Holiday", a film that paved the way for comedians like Mr. Bean's Rowan Atkinson.
Mr. Hulot's Holiday is slightly less absurdist than later Tati fare like "Mon Oncle", but there are times when the film teeters just on the brink of the unreal, and could pass for some sort of fever dream.
The plot, if it exists at all, is quite simple: Mr. Hulot goes to a summer beach resort and mingles with the other tourists. Naturally, the film winds up being a series of vignettes sharing only the beach resort and Tati himself as the common denominators.
Mr. Hulot could be described as "blissfully unaware" by his friends and admirers (which includes the young blonde woman Martine, who's completely bored by the intellectuals following her around and utterly charmed by Hulot's bizarre antics) and a "menace to society" by those he annoys (and there are plenty of those running around the resort as well).
Tati gets the little things right, he shows an eye for details we all know subconsciously but rarely acknowledge in our day to day lives. It's in the way Tati is able to capture the distant memories of some collective past.
Hulot's holiday is over all too quickly.
This review of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) was written by Devon B on 15 May 2012.
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday has generally received very positive reviews.
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