Well I must admit that this weekend I did get on a bit of a foreign film fetish. My former boss and close friend, Bobbie introduced to me the works of French auteur Jacques Tati. I was not all that familiar with his work until Bobbie had a screening at the Modern of one of his films, called Mr. Hulot's Holiday. I really enjoyed the film and set out to see some of his other films, particularly those featuring his alter ego Mr. Hulot. Tati stars and directs his films that are at times on par with Chaplin and Keaton. His alter ego Hulot is a bit of a mix of Seller's Clouseau and a tad of Mr Bean for those looking for something to describe him as. He's a French klutz that means well but usually his honesty and good nature bring him nothing but trouble. Tati started as a mime and his films continue this theme as the films work on a silent level, with pretty much minimal dialog and lotsa sound/fx for all the sight gags. He wears his trademark raincoat, umbrella as a cane, and pipe. In Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953) he takes a vacation to a resort that results in a series of misunderstandings and physical gags that have such genuine charm it makes you love the character of Mr. Hulot so much, you hate to see him leave.
I started my new Tati journeys with the follow-up to "Mr. Hulot's Holiday", "Mon Oncle" (1958). In Oncle Hulot lives in a small town near his nephew whom he seems to be closer to in age than the adults in the town. His sister and husband live in a super-duper state of the art home with automatic gates, robot kitchens and the best gag of all the Fish statue that spits water out whenever someone comes in the gate. Although the funny thing about that particular gag is that it's Hulot's sister that has to turn the fountain on b4 anyone can come into the gate of the home. This theme is what is at the heart of Mon Oncle to me. Tati has a series of failed attempts at working in a factory, and a disastrous attempt at a romantic hookup at a dinner party by his sister, but alas the theme of this movie all goes back to that Fish. Tati to me at least is saying look at how silly we are that we worship gadgets, technology, and appearances. Tati does a good job here in balancing the comedy with satire. My only complaint was that it felt maybe about 20-30 minutes too long. Other than that I had a lot of fun with Mon Oncle, and I would welcome another view sometime.
The next one I popped in was called Playtime from 1967. It took Tati 3 or 4 years to film it, and after watching it you can see why. It's attention to detail is amazing. most scenes are played all in long shots with tons of extras and gags all going on at once. The film takes place in Paris mainly in a modern state of the art skyscraper as Tati's Mr' Hulot attempts to track down a busy executive to finish running an erand. the scenes with Hulot are great, but tend to drag at points. And where the film lost me is Tati's obsession with technology. Like a bad hangover from Mon Oncle's house he dwells on this for way too long. There are points where Hulot disappears from stretches of the film for what seems like half an hour. At over two hours the film is overlong. The best genius in this film is that as Hulot is tracking this guy down there is a secondary story of a female tourist dying to see Paris, when all she does is tour this crazy skyscraper. Whenever she opens a door in this building there is a reflection of the Eiffel Tower and other great Paris locations. I thought that was a genius visual move on Tati's part and I think it gets his point across better than anything else in the film. What I loved about Hulot's holiday and even mostly in Oncle is Hulot's humanity in this crazy world. In Playtime the character of Hulot gets lost in Tati's huge message canvas. It's technically a sight to behold as a filmmaker you can feel him growing as you go along, but at the same time I felt I signed up for a Hulot film, and although I was enlightened I was somewhat disappointed.
There is one more Hulot adventure I have not seen called Trafic, where Hulot plays a automobile inventor on his way to an auto show in a tech loaded RV. That sounds really fun, and I can't wait to see it. i did some more research on Tati, and on the Playtime DVD from Criterion, there is a second disc of documentaries and interviews that shed some more light on this really genius and incredible influential comedian that has influenced Mr. Bean, Monty Python, Peter Sellers, and countless others. For first timers I would recommend Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle. And yes Amy there are dogs in outfits.
Here is a the official Tati website. Be warned its design is more complicated and confusing as Tati could have ever imagined! Also look below for the trailer to Mon Oncle..
Click HERE to enter Tativille.com
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