Word: tati
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Oncle (which the distributor has rendered with accuracy and consummate disrespect for Americans' linguistic prowess, as My Uncle) is Jacques Tati's sequel to his immensely successful Mr. Hulot's Holiday. The newer movie retains as its hero, Hulot, the man of zany good sense and good will pitted against a world that takes itself awfully seriously but happens to be insane. Last time, Hulot attacked the concept of the holiday; now he is after modernism...
Hulot's method of attack is a subtle one: he doesn't really pursue his prey; it pursues him. In Mon Oncle, Modern Times closes in on the good-natured Hulot (played by M. Tati, who also wrote and directed the film) in the form of a paunchy brother-in-law. Brother-in-law is an officer of an ultra-modern company which manufactures plastic hoses and similar useful items, and he has constructed for himself, wife and son a house with every conceivable inconvenience...
Brother-in-law's house represents the ultimate in uncomfortable functionalism, with a push-button kitchen, chairs that Hulot can't sit in, and a garden featuring a metallic fish which spouts water (used for company only). Director Tati and his man Hulot take this cheery homestead and turn it into a mechanized madhouse. Hulot, after discovering a rubber-based pitcher that bounces, tried to bounce a glass, only to find that brother-in-law's technicians haven't modernized that item yet. When a modern sofa proves impossible for Hulot to sleep in, he discovers that turned...
Hulot never defeats the age--except perhaps at the party and at the factory when he starts producing rubber sausages instead of rubber hose. Essentially, however, Tati attacks the modern world by showing what it's like at its ludicrous best. Mon Oncle is, in fact, a magnificent series of satiric vignettes, and Tati's greatest achievement here is that of the director who catches in the subtlest and funniest touches the humor and charm of life...
...performed last week by imported British Comedian Dave King in his first show as Milton Berle's TV summer replacement (NBC, Wed., 9 p.m.), it seemed tasteful and gratifyingly fresh. A comedian who works primarily in pantomime, King is a kind of Jack Tati in his characterization of the well-meaning Englishman who really could cope with life except for the fact that the world itself is a little out of kilter...