Mon Oncle (1958)
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 117 minuten
Country:
France / Italy
Directed by: Jacques Tati
Stars: Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola and Adrienne Servantie
IMDb score:
7,6 (25.265)
Releasedate: 10 May 1958
Mon Oncle plot
"Mr Hulot takes a precious, playful ... and purely premeditated look at modern times ..."
9-year-old Gérard, the son of a wealthy industrialist, lives in a futuristic villa where everything happens automatically and has everything he could wish for, but is bored to death. The boy adores his uncle Hulot, who lives in a simple house in an old working-class neighborhood and is so happy. Gérard's mother has little understanding for her brother's lifestyle and tries to match him up with a wealthy neighbor. But Hulot has no intention of giving up his old life.
Actors and actresses
Monsieur Hulot
Monsieur Arpel
Madame Arpel
Monsieur Pichard
Betty, Landlord's Daughter
Walter
Neighbor
Georgette, the Housekeeper
Madame Pichard
Gérald Arpel
Reviews & comments
eRCee
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- 13463 messages
- 1986 votes
Great movie, really great. The beautiful stylization, the futuristic decors, the unique atmosphere. There are many playful and hilarious situations, especially with the children. Incredibly well thought out. Just take M. Hulot's Pluk van de Petteflat-esque house, you won't see anything like it anywhere else.
Nevertheless, Mon Oncle is sometimes a bit on the dull side and I was not touched, as if this film also does not escape the clinical deadness that Tati portrays. It's all a bit remote.
The soundtrack of Mon Oncle is very special. There is no background noise at all, often only two or three sharp sounds (for example the click of heels) against a dead silence. While all areas of the house communicate with each other, the human dialogue sometimes disappears: then again the conversation is drowned out by noise, then again it only excels in superficiality. In fact, I think you only hear M. Hulot himself say twice in the entire movie.
My final rating is a compromise between genius and aloofness: 3.5*.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6285 messages
- 2595 votes
Viewers who have had to drag themselves through this, reviews of corny, not standing the test of time... there are few films where I find it so difficult to imagine anything with such objections. To be clear, that is of course entirely up to me. But all those little jokes that aren't hammered in (the collar of Mr. Arpel's dressing gown, which has the same pattern as his dachshund's cover, the man who follows a tripping secretary, involuntarily listening to the rhythm of her heels follows, the street sweeper who never sweeps because there are so many more important things to discuss, the café music that unexpectedly still rings on the factory manager's phone, and then all the auditory jokes: Mrs. Arpel and Georgette's feet tripping on the garden path (or the secretary at the factory), the sigh of the couch as soon as the sitter gets up, the neighbor's voice, the sounds in the state-of-the-art kitchen, the sound when Hulot throws the electric lighter out of the car window on the road surface lands) make me laugh again and again and put me in a great mood, not only because I'm having so much fun but also because I know that there has ever been someone who has captured such a sense of life on celluloid. And if that doesn't go at the pace of the present tense, that's all the more unfortunate for the present tense – when I'm so absorbed in a movie I can no longer think in terms of outdated or modern.
Translated from Dutch · View original
thunderball
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- 6000 messages
- 1433 votes
Watched this a few weeks ago when I got out my Tati blu ray set.
I first became acquainted with Tati's films somewhere in the mid-eighties on the Belgian-French, where I watched films more often, because there was already a lot more choice at that time than on the two Dutch channels that we used at the time. only had.
The advantage with these films was of course also that there was hardly any speaking and there was already something said, it didn't matter that much, it was of course mainly about the visual and the many comical situations and misunderstandings.
In this case, the film is about the contrast between the somewhat unworldly Hulot, who lives in an old-fashioned, cheerful village in an extremely curious, but cozy upstairs apartment, and his sister, who lives with his husband and son in a luxurious suburb in a hyper-modern , but a cold and impersonal house is settled.
Perhaps Les Vacances... ultimately contains more jokes, but this film is clearly visually much more attractive with its beautiful colors and therefore also looks less dated.
Typical Tati with a lot of visual jokes, often exaggerated characters and more atmosphere than a real story, yet there is at least some kind of line here, with a head and a tail, unlike his next film. Of course it is Tati in the role of Hulot, who is amazed at all modern progress and - unintentionally - destroys everything that comes into his hands in his clumsy way.
The scene in which Hulot delights his nephew with a simple whistle and a cardboard doll, which makes the boy laugh with pleasure, is one that will stay with me the most.
An eight or four stars.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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