Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953) is one of Jacques Tati's most famous films, gaining an international reputation for its director upon its release. Les Vacances introduced the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy character of M. Hulot, who appears in a number of Tati's subsequent films, including Mon Oncle (1959), Playtime (1967), and Trafic (1971).
Les Vacances follows the adventures of M. Hulot (played by Tati himself) as he spends the mandatory August vacation at a beach resort. The film lampoons several hidebound elements of French political and social classes along the way.
The film was recorded with both French and English soundtracks. While Tati had experimented with color film in his previous film Jour de fête, Les Vacances is black and white. The jazz score, mostly variations on the theme "Quel temps fait-il à Paris", was written by Alain Romans.
Les Vacances earned Tati an Oscar nomination (shared with Henri Marquet) for Best Original Screenplay.
Les Vacances was filmed in the town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer in the Loire-Atlantique region of France, and a bronze statue of M. Hulot was later erected overlooking the beach where the film was made. Hôtel de la Plage is now run by Best Western Hotels.
Plot
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot follows the generally harmless misadventures of the lovable, gauche Frenchman Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati) as he joins the "newly emerging holiday-taking classes" for a summer vacation at a modest seaside 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 optimistic belief in capitalist production, and the value of complex technology over simple pleasures, prominent themes in his later films.
