M. Hulot's Holiday (The Criterion Collection)
by Jacques Tati
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jacques Tati, Louis Perrault, Micheline Rolla, Nathalie Pascaud, Valentine CamaxDirector: Jacques Tati
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-06
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of M. Hulot's Holiday (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: M. Hulot On Vacation: A Beautiful, Gentle Film By Jacques Tati
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
With M. Hulot's Holiday, Monsieur Hulot arrives at the small Hotel de la Plage in a French oceanside resort town. He's taking his annual vacation and the hotel is filled with other guests. From then until Hulot and the guests check out at end of their stay, we observe one sight gag after another slowly building and popping until we know who all these people are. There's the young boy whose father is always on the phone to a stockbroker, or the waiter who is perpetually resentful, or the young woman who dances with Hulot, or the elderly couple who take strolls, where she finds beautiful discoveries in the grass and he, without her seeing, quickly discards them. There are no close-ups, just medium shots as if we were there, too, watching what's going on. Dogs, cars, tires, horses, magnifying glasses, ping pong balls all have their moments. There are probably no more than a couple dozen lines of dialogue. One thing after another happens, and especially to Hulot...Hulot on the tennis courts...Hulot going riding...Hulot in the drawing room...Hulot at the funeral...Hulot with the fireworks. It's hard not to watch this movie without a smile on your face.
We realize that for all his good intentions, Hulot doesn't really fit in with this petit bourgeois group of vacationers. Yet as many funny frustrations and misunderstandings happen to these people as happen to Hulot. By the end of the movie we know most of the guests almost as well as we know Hulot. We also find ourselves admiring Hulot's indomitable innocence and good will. I felt a little sad and poignant at the close of the film.
For those unfamiliar with Tati and his few films, this is a good one to start with; so would be My Uncle. Tati himself was not as fortunate as his creation. His meticulous approach meant years would pass between films. My Uncle didn't appear until 1958. Nine years went by before Playtime was released. Playtime was horrendously expensive and made little money. Tati was forced into bankruptcy. In order finance Traffic (1971), he put up as collateral the rights to all his previous films. Traffic failed and Tati lost control of his life's work.
This Criterion DVD looks just fine. It includes several extras including an introduction by Terry Jones and a short from the Thirties which starred Tati. M. Hulot's Holiday, sometimes listed as Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, is a wonderful, gentle, beautiful movie. I highly recommend it.
Summary of M. Hulot's Holiday (The Criterion Collection)
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