Hindsight

Classic Kids, or 100 films that the kids in your life have to see by 13 or else!

Day 78:  Mr. Hulot's Holiday 

Directed by Jacques Tati, this lovely little film introduces the well-meaning, bumbling character of Monsieur Hulot.  The plot doesn't sound like much, a man on vacation at a middle-class seaside resort, but the film is really special.  The characters Hulot meets are hilarious, wasteful capitalists,  self-important intellectuals and status seekers, who (collectively) are unable to simply relax and enjoy themselves.  The film is told with sparse dialogue, and often uses audio cues to guide the plot, as well as set up a plethora of sight gags.  Tati uses abundant long shots to frame the relationship between people and their environment.  This allows the viewer to see the funny aspects of a range of characters at the same time, contributing to the humor of the film.  

Writer, Simon O'Hagan, said on the 50th anniversary of the film, 
"contain[s] the greatest collection of sight gags ever committed to celluloid, but it is the context in which they are placed and the atmosphere of the film that lift it into another realm. The central character is an unforgettable amalgam of bafflement at the modern world, eagerness to please and just the right amount of eccentricity - i.e. not too much - his every effort to fit in during his seaside holiday merely succeeds in creating chaos out of orderliness. Puncturing the veneer of the comfortably off at play is by no means the least of Tati's concerns. But, [there is] an elegiac quality [too], the sense that what Tati finds funny he also cherishes."

Themes:  Leisure, Technology, Snobbery

Media Literacy Questions for Kids:  How is sound used in this film in unique ways?  Describe your favorite sight gag and why?  Why is Hulot a hero of sorts?  Is there a moral to the film? 

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