Mon Oncle - Criterion Collection

Starring:Yvonne Arnaud, Claude Badolle, Nicolas Bataille, Alain BÃ©court, Adelaide Danieli, RÃ©gis Fontenay, Suzanne Franck, Lucien FrÃ©gis, Michel Goyot, RenÃ© Lord, Jean-Pierre Loriot, Mancini, Dominique Marie, Max Martel, Jean-FranÃ§ois Martial, Claire Rocca, Betty Schneider, Adrienne Servantie, Jean-Pierre Zola
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

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A comic masterpiece from director-star Jacques Tati (Playtime, Traffic), this 1958 film--Tati's first in color--reprises the carefree, oblivious title character from the director's hilarious international hit Mr. Hulot's Holiday. This time, the story finds Hulot, a self-involved twit on a constant collision with the physical world, grappling with 1950s-style progress. Visiting his sister and brother-in-law in their ultra-progressive household full of noisy gadgets and futuristic decor, Hulot inevitably has dust-ups with modernity, each one exceptionally funny. Taking a page from Buster Keaton's playbook, Tati also employs his trademark techniques with sound and production design to achieve the indefinable, comic genius of his films: the rhythmic clacking of footsteps, the cartoon-panel distance of his camera frame from the heart of the action. (Why are funny things funnier when seen from a few extra feet away?) Tati is one of the cinema's great treasures, and this movie is unforgettable. --Tom Keogh

Description

Slapstick prevails when Jacques Tati's eccentric hero Monsieur Hulot is let loose in the ultramodern house of his brother-in-law, and in an antiseptic factory that manufactures plastic hose. Tati directs and stars in the second entry of the Hulot series, a delightful satire of mechanized living. Academy Award winner, Best Foreign Film.

Customer Reviews:

Mon Oncle.......2007-06-26

France's answer to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, comic genius Jacques Tati leads us on an uproarious trek through the futuristic 1950s in "Mon Oncle," his first color feature. With hardly any dialogue, Tati orchestrates one hilarious pratfall sequence after another, involving everything from wild gizmos to click-clacking high heels, and even a downbeat dachsund. Like Chaplin, Tati was a perfectionist, and the Oscar-winning "Mon Oncle" is exactly that: A perfect collision of madcap slapstick and social satire, with a Tramp-like heart.

I wish I had had an uncle like this one! .......2007-05-07

Once again, I must thank the Criterion Collection for adding an additional Jacques Tati film to their film family. MON ONCLE is definitely a classic. In this installment, M. Hulot (Jacques Tati) visits his progressive brother and sister at their home, best-described as "post-Modern" (in my words). They have a fountain with a spitting fish statue in the center, a very high tech kitchen that solves the basic "problems" that exist in that part of the household with so-called "labor saving" gadgets (that, of course, go haywire when in the hands of Hulot), and a tiny, billigerent pet Dauchshaund in a little plaid sweater. I would be billigerent, too, if I had to live with all of that madness!

This film isn't so much a comedy as a social commentary with humorous moments. The story takes a very candid look at modern technology and its effect on the nation of France, through the eyes of the hapless M. Hulot. I love it and I reccomend it to everyone (be they Francophiles, comedy fans, or anyone with a pulse!).

Tati meets the future, and he doesn't like it.......2007-04-05

In this classic movie from 1958, Tati plays his usual character Mr. Hulot. He lives in an old, rundown part of town, while his sister, married to the manager of a plastics factory, has a shiny futuristic house in the suburbs, with a lot of goofy gadgets. (Of course, what was presumed to be the future in the 50s wasn't always what it turned out to be, and that sort of retrofuturism is fun). The movie has very little dialogue, a silent-movie like musical score, and a number of gags involving Hulot being utterly confused by the modern gadgets in her sister's house (to be fair, few of those gags are laugh-out-loud funny). Actually, what I found even more fascinating than the retrofuturism in Mon Oncle, watching it now, is the look of the old part of town where Hulot lives (we see the France of the 20s and 30s, still existing in 1958, but soon to be razed down, as it has been seldom been shown on color film). And if Tati wanted to say that the old France was more humane than the new, ugly, futuristic France shown in the movie, well, he has my vote.

Superb Miming and Humour.......2006-11-04

One of the great films in the M. Hulot series. Jaques Tati is a great performer and makes this, like most of his films a pleasant escape from the realities of his - and now our - modern world. Watch it if you can!

Such a Beautiful Film.......2006-10-16

"I fail to understand how a film can be called boring, when it is so full of life, and witty observations. Rather than feeling that it was too long, I was sorry when it was over."

I concur a hundred percent with the previous reviewer above! This film is not a total comedy so don't expect that from it. I'm a comedy lover who can really enjoy the Marx Brothers, Chris Farley, Larry David's Curb and the movie Anchor Man all with the same enthusiasm. I like to con myself into believing I know allot about comedy. This movie is funny in places but also depicts real French life in such a beautiful way it makes you smile! Especially with the score and full ambience of the town with the children playing in the background...I feel the whole essence of this French Town like I'm there with the children playing! I fell in love with this film because of the comedy aspect but mostly because of how full of life it is!

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