Monsieur Hulot is still a lasting comic creation. After the success of Les Vacances des Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati introduces us to Hulot's home town which seems to be in the process of modernisation. He lives in the old quarter with it's crumbling walls, charming old streets and charming old characters. His lodgings are on the top floor of a building that appears to be haphazardly designed and we see him walking along passages and up stairs, through several windows in a static shot. The streets feature local colour in the form of a sweeper who endlessly complains to people, a market, a cafe and a pack of small weeing dogs.
Hulot's sister (Adrienne Servantie) and brother-in-law (Jean-Pierre Zola) - the Arpels - live in the modern part of the town. They seem to have an American style life with a very modernist house and enclosed gardern featuring a ridiculous metal fish fountain that only comes on for those who are worthy. The interior has all mod-cons with sliding doors, a kitchen from the International Space Station and designer furniture. Hulot is fond of his nephew and this is what brings him into frequent contact with his aspiring brother-in-law who owns a plastics factory. Keen to diminish Hulot's influence over their son Gerard (Alain Bécourt), Arpel decides to get him a job at the factory with the usual comic results.
Hulot is not a slapstick or bumbling character. The comedy is mainly visual and contrived. For instance, he steps into paint on his way to his job interview and places his shoes on the desk to remove a stone. The female interviewer thus believes he was standing on the desk to peer at her in the adjacent changing room through a skylight. Another nice scene is where he has to return to the Arpel's garden at night to repair some topiary. The Arpel's heads in the backlit round windows, swivel like cartoon eyes as they listen to noises from the garden. Sound plays a big part in all of Tati's films. Anything that is the focus of attention seems to have magnified sound effects. Though the film is French, subtities aren't neccessary and an English dubbed version is quite acceptable. Indeed, Hulot only says 'Alright?' in the whole film.
The film essentially focuses on technology and modernisation and how we are often left behind. This is nothing new really and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times possibly pre-dates all of it. Tati continues this theme in the oddly disappointing Playtime. He doesn't moralise but there is a smug sense that he's suggesting that lower-class people are nicer, more balanced than middle-classes. Possibly the best Hulot film. Music by Franck Barcellini, Alain Romans and Norbert Glanzberg.
A bit I thought was hilarious as a youngster was when Mr Hulot uses his brother-in-law's car cigarette lighter then chucks it out of the passenger window as if it were a match. Very pleasing film.
Posted by:
Simon Aronsson
Date:
13 Aug 2008
I saw this in the 80s when I was 15, on a long, boring, lonely summer afternoon. I thought it was tremendous and the humour is still quite sophisticated. I like the scene in the kitchen where he tries to see if a glass will bounce as well as the plastic jug. The real joke is the sound of the unseen broken glass being kicked under the cupboards.
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