Independent Films, Film Profiles

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday
by Jacques Tati

Les Vacances de M. Hulot (released as Monsieur Hulot's Holiday in the UK and as Mr. Hulot's Holiday in the USA), is one of Jacques Tati's most famous films, gaining an international reputation for its director upon its release in 1953. 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 a lovable French dimwit, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati himself) as he spends the mandatory August vacation at a beach resort. The film openly lampoons several hidebound elements of French political and economic classes, from chubby capitalists and rabid Marxists to petty proprietors and drab dilettantes, most of whom find it nearly impossible, even temporarily, to free themselves from their rigid social roles in order to relax and enjoy life. Les Vacances also gently mocks the confidence of postwar Western society in the primacy of work over leisure and the value of complex technology over simple pleasures, themes that would resurface in his later films.In Les Vacances, Tati dispensed with the already sparse speaking roles and incidental character narration of his earlier film, Jour de fête. For the most part, spoken dialogue is limited to the role of background sounds. Combined with frequent long shots of scenes with multiple characters, Tati believed that the results would tightly focus audience attention on the comical nature of humanity when interacting as a group, as well as his own carefully planned visual gags. However, the film is by no means a 'silent' comedy, as it uses natural and man-made sounds not only for comic effect but also for character development.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, which includes the theme "Quel Temps Fait-Il A Paris"[1], is 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.