Description: Pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati's endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati's wildly funny satire of vacationers determined to enjoy themselves includes a series of precisely choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats and firecrackers. The first entry in the Hulot series is a masterpiece of gentle slapstick.
Amazon.com essential video: Forefather of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean, Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot--a recurring character in several of his movies--is a blithely clumsy troublemaker, an insouciant twit who leaves uproar in his wake without being aware of it. Trying to describe this 1953 comedy is next to impossible except to say it is a series of vignettes at a vacation resort, with the distracted Hulot providing a lot of laughs. Tati directs, and in a way what that really means is that he composes this movie with a perfect eye and ear for the comic possibilities in everything: composition, lighting, minimal marble-mouth dialogue, certain sounds (a duck call, a door repeatedly opening and shutting). This is a superior work that ranks among all-time classic comedies. --Tom Keogh
Timeless French classic - very funny, absolutely enjoyable Not much dialogue, but you don't need it. Just enjoy the idiosyncrasies of human nature and laugh. Absolutely charming.
Not so great Tastes in comedy must have really changed in the last 50 years. I found most of the humor in this to be very strained. How did this film ever win at Cannes? Must not have been anything better that year.
There are simply too many fabricated events: people almost getting hit by cars, spilling things, bumping into each other, etc. People getting scared by the "shark" was just silly. How could anyone think that looked like a shark?
There were a few convincing slapstick moments that made me laugh. What I liked most about the film, though, is that it brought me back to a time when people HAD to interact with others more than they do today. And it was something special to go on a picnic, or ride a horse, or go to the beach.
An aquired taste Having never seen a Tati film in my 40 something years, I was probably expecting too much from this 1950's French comedy. It certainly has its merits. There are some lovely visual gags, which are very clever and funny as well, together with a set of characters who develop with the film.
I found that at 83mins it dragged a bit and whilst the jazzy music theme was great the first time I heard it, after the theme had been repeated about a dozen times it began to get on my nerves. Tati himself was undoubtably a talented visual comedian, and if he had been working 30 years earlier, before the introduction of sound would probably have been a bigger star. If I had seen this film when I was very young I'm sure that it would have made a lasting impression on me (like Laurel & Hardy) and I would have rated it much higher.
As it is, I probably need to see it again to fully appreciate it. Then it may get four stars.
copied by peter sellers et al Oh, the utter charm of this 1953 black and white movie. When people come to stay at our house, I eventually have them watch this movie, and allow no conversational chatter about the grandkids or the weather...one might miss something!! There is a sweet innocence here, some dry humor and a few pokes of fun at things that...need poking.
If only there were more Mr Hulot films!! Does this film have a plot? Not really. Mr Hulot goes to the seaside for holiday and accidentally, and quite hysterically for us, impacts the same group of fellow holiday makers. One of the superb ironies, and there are many, is that Mr Hulot ends up with the most charming girl, and dances with her dressed in a shirt with a huge lobster on it. (His idea of a pirate costume for a costume ball)
Watch for the shark scene, the card players, the funeral wreath...watch this movie.
Mr. Bean is So Much Better! This film is slow, boring and even irritating to watch at times. I just don't get French humor.OK, they think Jerry Lewis is a comic genius; that explains everything.
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