Las vacaciones del señor Hulot

If you do not have the time or money to travel back to 1953 to spend a French holiday, you might as well just watch M. Hulot's Holiday. Honestly holidays are stressful and barely ever as good as you want them to be anyway, while this movie was much more than I expected it to be.

The humor in the film is warm, never condescending or patronizing to the characters. There is always the sense of fun. The movie really sells itself to me by not making Mr. Hulot a buffoon alone in the crowd. Circumstance and happening reveals everyone to be capable of situational humor, the accidents of the movie are shared with a laugh.

It is an observational movie, and the majority of the humor is not forced, neither upon us nor upon the movie itself. It merely shows how people can get involved in each others' lives, how funny the average day can be. It is like attending a family reunion, really. The camera does not stick itself to Mr. Hulot, but goes anywhere for a laugh. If a small boy is doing something funny, the camera will be there to capture it all, and then leave the boy. This would make another film feel large, but because there is no story to the film, because there is no main character to feel especially attached to, it always feels personal, it always feel like you are seeing something nobody else is.

Perhaps the best part is that the film sticks with you for days afterward, and soon Mr. Hulot's Holiday shows its real genius, as you start noticing similar things happening around you.

"M. Hulot's Holiday" is one of those films that you either get or you don't. Jacques Tati was a fine physical comedian, in the same rank as Buster Keaton, and his Hulot character is perfect. If you like your comedy silent and beautifully observed, you will enjoy this film.

Watching M. Hulot play tennis creases me up every time I see it. The character's whole physical demeanour indicates that he is not wired up in the same way as other humans, even when he is standing still. You could put this oddball in any normal situation and expect him to raise a smirk.

Tati does not carry the whole film and there is enough gentle comedy from the other characters for you not to get bored with his silent shtick. M. Hulot does not overstay his welcome.

I guarantee that you will be humming the theme music for days afterwards. You won't have picked up any catchphrases from its eponymous star turn but it's an enjoyable, thoroughly French movie. If Steve Martin ever tries to remake it, he deserves to be shot.

All Tati's films are a gentle poke in the ribs...Nothing wrong with that...Totally different performer to Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd...Those who compare him with them, know nothing of comedy..Tati dealt in observances, the others in pure slapstick where they were the ones to be looked at..Tati through his use of the camera and his setup's asked the audience to look at everything on the screen..At everything that was happening around the central character..Those who need their comedy force fed to them in huge exaggerated doses shouldn't watch a Tati film, I doubt whether their concentration spans would last the distance.

But then again, to ask some audiences (probably American) to appreciate a subtlety, is a very hard task indeed, especially if they have been raised on the cinema de tripe which comes out of Hollywood.

The picture deals with Mister Hulot going to a holiday resort where he accidentally originates destruction and disaster . The movie is plentiful of original sketches . From the beginning to the end the good humor and bland comedy are continued . The film blends tongue-in-cheek , irony , giggles , joy , jokes , social critical and is pretty bemusing and entertaining .

In spite of runtime is overlong , the run is two hours and some , isn't boring neither tiring but funny . The gentle humor developed in the film is clever and thoughtful and the comic numbers vary between slapstick and surrealist . The argument is plain and simple though is only set in a hotel and beach isn't dreary . Jacques Tati is extraordinary as Mister Hulot , character he'll repeat in a sequel : ¨My uncle¨ . Direction and interpretation by Jacques Tati is magnificent and excellent . Alain Romain's score ( habitual musician of Tati ) is agreeable and cheerful . The motion picture received awesome reviews and deserves the complete knowledge because there are amount chuckles and entertainment . The picture is nowadays considered a European cult film .

A French classic every bit as funny as "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Except for missing the wonderfully amusing sound effects, this nearly silent film could be viewed with the sound on mute. Its plethora of homages to the great films of the silent era, meticulously executed slapstick and sight gags make me grin, smile broadly and laugh out loud every time I watch this Gallic masterpiece.

On a visual level alone, this movie works. Kids too young to understand anything about how movies are supposed to work laugh at the kayak, the fireworks, the tennis, at M. Hulot's gawky awkwardness, etc, etc.

It takes a bit more maturity, or perhaps immersion in Gallic sensibilities, to get all the underlying humor.

Whereas Monty Python takes more obvious pokes at the French, Tati's Hulot takes subtle swipes at the Brits and the Americans. It's 1953. The English speaking world has saved France from the Germans, but the French are losing the cultural battle not only to their liberator's language, but to their mechanized world. Hulot, the old French owl (note Tati's birdlike mannerisms), has become the awkward outsider in his own seaside resort. In that context, much of what might appear disjointed, takes on an appealing continuity. Ferreting it all out is like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Each viewing finds something new.

A film which improves with age and frequent viewing.