Production Designer: Henry Schmitt. Unlike his contemporaries on Truffaut’s list, Tati was not a part of the “film community” in the active sense. In few minutes track analysis will be completed. The second Hulot movie and Tati’s first color film, Mon oncle is a supremely amusing satire of mechanized living and consumer society that earned the director the Academy Award for … Through this opposition of values, Tati argues that the most troublesome aspect about technology is how people lose touch with one another because of it. We see Hulot’s connection to his young nephew Gerard, how endearing that relationship is, and how strangely at peace he is with the child. Even the aforementioned street sweeper cannot be bothered to sweep when a good conversation is to be had. The same notion applies to Tati’s representation of the modern workforce, which is defined through a series of obligatory rituals and movements. There are very few close-ups, or even shotreverse shots, in Mon oncle – the majority of scenes in the ‘modern’ world are filmed from a distance, in long-shot. Visual essay and critical analysis by Stephane Goudet. Nov 18. Of all of Jacques Tati’s films, Mon Oncle (1958) is probably the most disarming in its satirical attack on efficiency and modernity. Pp. Music: Franck Barcellini and Alain Romans. “Le Monocle de Mon Oncle” is one of the longer poems in Wallace Stevens’s first collection, Harmonium. " Le Monocle de Mon Oncle " is a poem from Wallace Stevens 's first book of poetry, Harmonium. 4. Hulot first appeared in Tati’s 1953 film M. Hulot’s Holiday, where, unintentionally, of course, Hulot enlivened a boring French resort through his bumbling; his accidental ignition of fireworks and love of jazz rumble the sleepy beachside getaway. In 1955, writing for Cahiers du cinema, François Truffaut (The 400 Blows) published a long list of filmmakers whom he believed were contributing to the downturn of the French film industry; with it, he also published a much shorter list that included nine exceptions whom he believed supplied French cinemas with great artistry. Laborit would likely tell Benoit that the teen has the greatest cinematic attribute — youth — and to make a run for it while he still can. Jacques Tati: His Life and Art. Paris: Nathan, 1993. Hulot, despite his bumbling demeanour and being an agent for chaos, is a catalyst for Gerard to find an inkling of boyish adventure in his father, and the two form a long overdue connection. Set at Christmas time, the story is told … Mon Oncle is often regarded as a paean to a bygone France that has gradually been usurped by the grand architectural renovations taking place in French urban areas throughout the 1950s and casts a satirical eye on the so-called benefits of modern design and technology. Nezar AlSayyad, ‘Cynical Modernity, or the Modernity of Cynicism’, in Cinematic Urbanism: A History of the Modern from Reel to Real, London and New York, Routledge, 2006, p. 101. Even if these scenes amount to but a few moments within the larger picture, they have a profound ability to touch our heart. See Hayward, p. 190. Jacques Tati is the great philosophical tinkerer of comedy, taking meticulous care to arrange his films so that they unfold in a series of revelations and effortless delights. While the Arpel villa remains a justly celebrated example of production design, Hulot’s own garret 354 Mon oncle/My Uncle (1958) room, at the apex of rickety old building that takes him a eternity to reach, is indicative of an old France resistant to wholesale change. Unlike the Arpels, who bring their ultra-modern chairs out of the house, and carefully position them on the patio to sit and watch the television from further away, Hulot’s world involves face-to-face communication. He was a silent film star in a post-silent world, and is remembered as one of the great screen comedians – perhaps the greatest – of the sound era, up there with Buster Keaton, Chaplin, and Leslie Nielsen. Paris: Ramsay, 1987. Satyajit Ray’s "Charulata": Calm Without, Fire Within. Alain Resnais (French: [alɛ̃ ʁɛnɛ]; 3 June 1922 – 1 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades.After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Night and Fog (1956), an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps. In Jacques Tati’s 1958 film Mon oncle, Hulot is the viewer’s entry point into two worlds that are investigated and contrasted: one world is obsessed with contemporary gadgetry and industry, the other is rooted in ways of the past. For Tati, this type of city living is destined to rapidly disappear. Antonio D’Alfonso, Toronto, Guernica Editions, 2003. Alain Resnais' "Mon oncle d'Amerique" (1980) is one the New Wave pioneer's best films, a winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes. Screenwriters: Jacques Tati and Jacques Lagrange. 6 Mrs Arpel carries out her housekeeping duties with exaggerated accents on her motions, as if acting out her role in the household though no one is there to watch her performance. It is a happy ending for both, as Gerard no longer needs Hulot as a substitute father-friend, and Mr. Arpel can finally feel that his son looks up to him. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films, Edited by Sarah Barrow, Sabine Haenni and John White, first published in 2015. There is almost no drama at all in Tati’s films – even when Hulot’s brother-in-law in Mon Oncle, Monsieur Arpel (Jean-Pierre Zola), raises his voice in anger, the film’s vital signs don’t fluctuate for a moment. But more than an apparent social commentary about the conflict between new and old, Mon oncle is Tati’s most touching and pleasant film, a masterpiece of physical comedy and meticulous planning, and a delicately heartrending story about family bonds. One morning, Hulot opens his window on this view and hears a bird chirping but for a brief moment. Like Mad Men today, the costumes and décor have more character than the actors. Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle Antoine (1971) is one of the most highly regarded Canadian films of all-time, a critical assessment which has not waned over the years since people have cared enough about Canadian film to think about canons. The fashionable notion – forwarded by Le Corbusier – that modern architecture could provide an ideal form of utopian self-improvement is contested throughout Tati’s work and reaches a critical juncture in Mon oncle. How pleasant to think of Monsieur Hulot as Jacques Tati’s familial contribution to filmgoers—our cinematic relation who we watch in anticipation for what he will do will next, whose politeness knows no limit, and who makes us chuckle and smile endlessly. When the secretary reenters, she sees the footprints leading from the door through her office and onto her desk, and she determines that Hulot had climbed up on her desk to look over the dividing wall to peek into the ladies’ room. Mon Oncle. Although branded as comedies, Tati’s films are not the conventional laugh-out-loud box-office hits. David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 4th ed., London, Little Brown, 2003, p. 862. Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle (1958) had me almost from the very beginning. “Le Monocle de Mon Oncle” is a poem about art, as are, on one level, all of Stevens’s poems. Each film demonstrates how Tati is more interested in exploring broad character tropes as opposed to fleshed-out individuals and personalities, Hulot himself being the prime example. Brent Maddock, The Films of Jacques Tati, Metuchen, NJ, and London, Scarecrow Press, 1977. Film Analysis 2: Mon Oncle From the very opening of the film it is apparent that Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle is not going to follow the standards of comedic filmmaking. Collection Synop-sis, no. Despite the aesthetic quality of the house and its proportional and linear harmony, it is clearly a space that has not improved the lifestyle of its end users. But though they may be devoid of laughs, they certainly aren’t devoid of meaning. With little or no dialogue in his films, Tati employed tightly choreographed slapstick action and innovative, often unsettling sound designs to move the story forward. Tati subverts the supposedly ideal futurist dream as represented in modernist architecture, and recasts it as a space in which modes of behaviour have eroded to robotic gestures and automated responses. The film generally focuses on quiet humorous events rather than outrageous slapstick. It is not surprising that Mon oncle is burdened with so strong a spirit of ambivalence towards modernity and progress. By the time of Mon oncle, Tati was creating dramatic tension through the clash of cultures between old and new France, allegorised in the Arpel’s new modern villa built on the outskirts of Paris. 3 He was an apolitical Everyman, a perplexed figure marooned in a fast-changing France, a silent witness to a new vogue in efficiency and urban renewal. When he visited Hollywood for the ceremony, the Academy offered him any indulgence he could think of; Tati asked only that he be allowed to visit the nursing homes where silent film comedians Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, and Mack Sennet then lived. 16. Full online text of My Uncle Jules by Guy de Maupassant. 3. For Mon oncle, one of the more endearing production stories details how Tati adopted the dogs from the SPA (Société Protectrice des Animaux) for the film, and after production wrapped he assured they would get a good home when he took out an ad in the paper Le Figaro announcing these “upcoming film stars” for adoption. Deep Focus Review © 2006-2021. Showing all 4 items Jump to: Summaries (4) Summaries. Cast: Jacques Tati (Monsieur Hulot), Jean-Pierre Zola (Charles Arpel), Adreinne Servantie (Madame Arpel), Alain Bécourt (Gérard), Adelaide Danieli (Madame Pichard).]. Genres: Psychological Drama, Drama. Appreciations and critical essays on great cinema. “Mon oncle d’Amerique” features a real, narrating philosopher, Henri Laborit, explaining with the help of lab rats why the characters in the melodrama are doing what they’re doing. The film can be looked at, interpreted, and appreciated from a handful of perspectives –social/political, cultural, aesthetic/stylistic, historical– and normally requires that several … As Hulot leaves for a job in the provinces, Gerard connects with his father when a whistle goes wrong. To get Hulot’s attention, Mr. Arpel whistles. Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. Armand J. Cauliez, Jacques Tati, Paris, Seghers, 1968. Monsieur Hulot lives in the “old quarter” of Paris. Although his presence has, in essence, healed the Arpel family, where does this leave Hulot? Likewise, Mrs. Arpel attempts to play matchmaker for her hapless brother and their garish neighbor, but her efforts are also in vain. The film illustrates a relationship between two worlds that, their differences notwithstanding, can easily coexist. He shows how Taylorism has moved beyond the modes of production, and now obliges its inhabitants to work and live in particular ways, ‘with all their movements synchronized with their intended desires or objectives’. We'll send you an email to notify when done. Toronto: Guernica, 1997. 1) Le personnage principal Joseph Davranche est le deuxième narrateur du récit vit chez une famille pauvre a deux soeurs est sympathique (sous au pauvre en souvenant son oncle) est humoristique (lorsqu'il décrit sa mère comme un navire) comprend la position de sa famille II. His films are demanding in that they appear to be about nothing at all, though they are complex and meticulously crafted by a perfectionist-filmmaker. Most cities resolved to build upward with high-rise apartment buildings, which are seen under construction in the film’s opening title sequence. Other short stories by Guy de Maupassant also available along with many others by classic and contemporary authors. Consequently, Gerard’s adventures with his uncle Hulot outside of the Arpel gates are instantly fascinating, but they leave his father jealous of Hulot’s rapport with the boy. As a result, Tati sought to infuse his future Hulot pictures with a social commentary, lending substance to the director’s arrangement of clever visual gags, elaborately conceived production design, minimalist presentation, and meticulous concentration of subtle details—all of which took precedence over the political “purpose” of the film.