Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)

 Jacques Tati's "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday"


With his 1953 film "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday," Jacques Tati premiered the iconic character of Monsieur Hulot for the first time in film. He would go on to continue this character in his subsequent films, like 1958's "Mon Oncle" and 1967's "Playtime." Evocative of Charlie Chapin's tramp or the characters of Buster Keaton, Monsieur Hulot acts primarily as a visual gag comedian. 

The film is mostly free of plot-driven dialogue, entirely visual gags throughout. Monsieur Hulot shows up to a seaside resort full of wealthy vacationers. Through his attempts to assimilate to the mass vacationers and their hobbies and behaviors, he ends up only causing chaos. 

What Tati is able to accomplish with his Hulot character is using physical comedy and sight gags to visually demonstrate the bizarre way in which human beings behave. The specific point of focus for "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" is the way in which rich people act in the modern world.

Although I completely understand the film and was even tickled by many of the jokes, something about it just didn't resonate with me. I felt this way with "Jour de Fete" as well. However, I was hoping "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" would finally win me over. It did not. However, I completely get the appeal all the same.



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