GRADE: 9
Monsieur Hulot comes to a beachside hotel for a vacation and accidentally, but good-naturedly, causes havoc.
Original Title: Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot
Director: Jacques Tati
Country of Origin: France
THOUGHTS:
Jacques Tati movies don’t make me laugh, and, in a way, don’t even amuse me particularly. It’s a very, very different kind of comedy, one that creates an entire universe unto itself that doesn’t look like the one we know and yet somehow mirrors it in a lovingly bemused way. The whole affair feels like a dance: it’s precisely timed, but glides along with seeming ease and elegance. The camerawork and sound all play a role in this dance, too. Every aspect of the film is crafted to create a vision that feels utterly unique to Tati, as though we are seeing the world as he sees it and he sees himself in it. In the end, it’s Tati the director that I can’t help but admire. In his own way, he’s as visionary as Kubrick.