Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati
Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)
RANKED:
5. Jour de Fete (1949)
Starting his career as a mime, Jacques Tati eventually became world renowned as a filmmaker and visual performer after the second World War. His directorial career had to start somewhere and the 1949 film "Jour de Fete" was indeed that starting point. Centering on a mailman attempting to catch up with the speed of the times, "Jour de Fete" plays on themes involving the changing landscape of French culture and the infiltrating American post-war culture. Surrounding this theme are slapstick and physical comedy that only Tati could deliver. Although his later works would be the forefront of his career, "Jour de Fete" marked the foundational moment for a visual performer and a director who would sweep France and the globe off its feet.
4. Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)
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 Chaplie's Tramp or the characters of Buster Keaton, Monsieur Hulot acts primarily as a visual gag comedian. The film, "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday," centers on Monsieur Hulot taking a vacation to a seaside locale where various wealthy people are vacationing. Through his attempts to assimilate with the beachgoers, Tati reveals the absurdity of human behavior and our contemporary notions about etiquette, status, and what it means to be in 'polite' society.
3. Mon Oncle (1958)
After establishing the Chaplin-esque character of Monsieur Holut in his 1953 film, "Monsieur Hulot's Holiday," Jacques Tati one-upped himself with a continuation of the Hulot character with his 1958 film, "Mon Oncle." This time around, Hulot finds himself in the ultra-modern home of his nephew, Gerard, where everything is designed around superficial style over functionality. Using color for the first time, Tati renders this lifestyle with a monochromic, lifeless color palette that illustrates the selling out of individualization for homogenous consumer culture. Tati's film carries a bundles of laughs, as Hulot comedically bumbles his way through the absurdities of this aggravating, sterile, and industrialized environments in the most Quixote-esque way possible. "Mon Oncle" was somewhat divisive in France, as it directly mocked the consumer-minded people and rigid social structures of the 1950s. However, this divisiveness generated a lot of attention, garnishing over 4 million attendees.
2. Traffic (1971)
Although "Traffic" is exactly the same as "Playtime" in its aesthetics, themes, and tone, the feeling you get from watching is far different. "Traffic" is Jacques Tati's final film and the last iteration of his beloved character, Mr. Hulot. Like his previous film, "Playtime," it deconstructs the absurdity of modern life. However, while "Playtime" was a coordinated ballet, "Traffic" is more like jazz. Rather than acting as an objective observer of modernity, it places the viewer directly in its chaos. There are endless jobs to be at, places to go, things to fix, things to make, music blaring, news incoming, etc., all a mosaic of the disarray of modern life. To Tati, modern life is like traffic. His characters in "Traffic" all seem to be frantically reach their destination, while all being unable to properly understand or communicate with one another. It's an ensemble of mixed nationalities, languages, customs, and perspectives all trying their best in an industrialized, homogenized world. However, the moments of pure human connection provide some sense of medication to this interminable madness.
1. Playtime (1967)
After watching the 1967 French comedy "Playtime," it would be very difficult to argue against the notion that it is not only Jacques Tati's greatest artistic achievement, but one of the greatest artistic achievements in the history of film, as well. The only semblance of a plot stems from the befuddled wanderings through a hypermodern cityscape by the famed Tati character, Mr. Hulot. Through these journeys, we observe the various ways in which a modern France has abandoned any semblance of its past in favor of an Americanized consumer culture, full of soulless buildings, useless products, and a homogenized workforce. What's striking about "Playtime" is the sheer scale of its production, as Tati seems to construct an entire cityscape for his own farcical critiques. It's a film both endless funny and damning in its observations of the hollowness of the modern world.
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