Word: hulot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...whose big feet, small head, great height and bolted rigidity invest him, as he jerks and jolts and fidgets through his films, with the marvelously absurd demeanor of an Eiffel Tower out for a Sunday stroll. But from his solitary eminence, Moviemaker Tati (Jour de Fête, Mr. Hulot's Holiday) takes a solemn view of the comic art and the contemporary scene. "Look what is happening to us," he glooms. "This specialization. Depersonalization is taking all the human meaning out of our daily life. A man used to be proud of the way he could drive...
When you saw Hulot's Holiday, you got belly-laughs from Tati's portrayal of the Hulot personality. The whole responsibility of making the situations comic was his. But when you see My Uncle, the comedian Tati is solidly supported by script-writer Tati, and expertly guided by the director, also Tati. This makes for more humor, and subtler, and for a more acceptable cinematic whole...
...Hulot is the same Hulot, same pipe, same coat, same well-meaning, bland incompetence. This time he comes to preposterous unintentional grips with post-war prosperity, the modern source of the bourgeoisie that the French have ridiculed for a hundred years. And his skill for satire, apparent on only a personal level before, is strengthened by the theme and enhanced by his fuller control of the production. Tati's broadside satire of the modern scene is sharp, and cuts particularly deep since in America there don't seem to be even any shabby unsuccessful humanists left for a comparison--everybody...
...laws live in a hyper-modern house, sterile as an egg-bin, where the garden is gravel and a robot polishes the floor. They try to get Hulot a job with the firm, they try to set him up with a neighbor widow, they try to reform him; they fail, of course. He makes sausages out of plastic hose at the plant, devastates their garden party, and transports their son on his fuming motorbike. The characters, in their smug posturings and ridiculous appearance, are like cartoon characters, as the film itself is a plotless continuity of cartoon-like situations...
...Hulot's Holiday provides several hours of quiet for those who have grown tired of talking to people in Widener. At the Strand...