Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot: Difference between revisions
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''Les vacances'' earned Tati an Oscar nomination (shared with [[Henri Marquet]]) for [[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]]. |
''Les vacances'' earned Tati an Oscar nomination (shared with [[Henri Marquet]]) for [[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]]. |
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''Les vacances'' was shot in the town of [[Saint-Marc-sur-Mer]] |
''Les vacances'' was shot in the town of [[Saint-Marc-sur-Mer]], which lies on the edge of the industrial port of [[Saint-Nazaire]], in the [[Departments of France|Departement]] of [[Loire-Atlantique]]. Tati had fallen in love with the beguiling coastline while staying in nearby Port Charlotte<ref>http://www.annuaire-mairie.fr/info-departement-loire-atlantique-44.html</ref> with his friends, M. and Mme Lemoine, before the war and resolved to return one day to make a film there.<ref>http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Tati&action=submit</ref> Tati and his crew turned up in the summer of 1951, " took over the town and then presented it to the world as the quintessence of French middle-class life as it rediscovered its rituals in the aftermath of the [[Second World War]]." <ref> The Independent, 20 July 2003 </ref> A bronze statue of M. Hulot was later erected and overlooks the beach where the film was made. |
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==Critical reaction== |
==Critical reaction== |
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Revision as of 19:39, 1 March 2011
| Monsieur Hulot's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Jacques Tati |
| Written by | Jacques Tati Henri Marquet |
| Produced by | Fred Orain |
| Starring | Jacques Tati Nathalie Pascaud Micheline Rolla |
Release dates | France February 25, 1953 USA June 16, 1954 |
Running time | 114 min. |
| Language | French |
Les Vacances de M. Hulot (released as Monsieur Hulot's Holiday in the UK and as Mr. Hulot's Holiday in the USA), is a comedy film starring and directed by Jacques Tati. It introduced the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy character of Monsieur Hulot, who appears in Tati's subsequent films, including Mon Oncle (1959), Playtime (1967), and Trafic (1971). The film gained an international reputation for its creator when released in 1953.
Synopsis
Les vacances de M. Hulot follows the generally harmless misadventures of a lovable, gauche Frenchman, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati himself) as he spends the obligatory August vacation at a beach resort. The film affectionately lampoons several hidebound elements of French political and economic classes, from chubby capitalists and self-important Marxist intellectuals to petty proprietors and drab dilettantes, most of whom find it nearly impossible to free themselves, even temporarily, from their rigid social roles in order to relax and enjoy life. The film also gently mocks the confidence of postwar western society in the primacy of work over leisure and the value of complex technology over simple pleasures, themes that would resurface in his later films.
Style
For the most part, in Les vacances, spoken dialogue is limited to the role of background sounds. Combined with frequent long shots of scenes with multiple characters, Tati believed that the results would tightly focus audience attention on the comical nature of humanity when interacting as a group, as well as his own meticulously choreographed visual gags. However, the film is by no means a 'silent' comedy, as it uses natural and man-made sounds not only for comic effect but also for character development.
The film was made in both French and English language versions. While Tati had experimented with color film in Jour de fête, Les vacances is black and white. The jazz score, mostly variations on the theme "Quel temps fait-il à Paris", [1] was written by Alain Romans.
Les vacances earned Tati an Oscar nomination (shared with Henri Marquet) for Best Original Screenplay.
Les vacances was shot in the town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, which lies on the edge of the industrial port of Saint-Nazaire, in the Departement of Loire-Atlantique. Tati had fallen in love with the beguiling coastline while staying in nearby Port Charlotte[2] with his friends, M. and Mme Lemoine, before the war and resolved to return one day to make a film there.[3] Tati and his crew turned up in the summer of 1951, " took over the town and then presented it to the world as the quintessence of French middle-class life as it rediscovered its rituals in the aftermath of the Second World War." [4] A bronze statue of M. Hulot was later erected and overlooks the beach where the film was made.
Critical reaction
On its release in the United States, Bosley Crowther's review said that the film contained "much the same visual satire that we used to get in the 'silent' days from the pictures of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and such as those." He said the film "exploded with merriment" and that Tati "is a long-legged, slightly pop-eyed gent whose talent for caricaturing the manners of human beings is robust and intense.... There is really no story to the picture.... The dialogue... is at a minimum, and it is used just to satirize the silly and pointless things that summer people say. Sounds of all sorts become firecrackers, tossed in for comical point."[5]
The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.[6]
Cast
- Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot
- Nathalie Pascaud as Martine
- Micheline Rolla as The Aunt
- Valentine Camax as Englishwoman
- Louis Perrault as Fred
- André Dubois as The Major
- Lucien Frégis as Hotel Proprietor
- Raymond Carl as Waiter
- René Lacourt as Strolling Man
- Marguerite Gérard as Strolling Woman
Reception
References
- ^ http://www.frmusique.ru/texts/d/delyle_lucienne/queltempsfaitilaparis.htm
- ^ http://www.annuaire-mairie.fr/info-departement-loire-atlantique-44.html
- ^ http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Tati&action=submit
- ^ The Independent, 20 July 2003
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (1954), "The Screen in Review: French Satirical Film Opens at Fine Arts," The New York Times, June 17, 1954, p. 36.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Monsieur Hulot's Holiday". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
- ^ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". Empire.
{{cite web}}: Text "49. Monsieur Hulot's Holiday" ignored (help)
External links
- Monsieur Hulot's Holiday at IMDb
- Monsieur Hulot's Holiday at AllMovie
- Monsieur Hulot's Holiday at Rotten Tomatoes
- Monsieur Hulot and Time, essay by Andre Bazin, translated by Bert Cardullo
- Criterion Collection essay by David Ehrenstein
- Saint-Marc-sur-Mer Photo Gallery
- Roger Ebert's Review of Mr. Hulot's Holiday
- In Search of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday - article from The Guardian about staying in the Hotel de la Plage
