In Search Of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

I am back from a  visit to France's north-western coast - Brittany, to be more precise.
Althought I have been traveling to France for decades, my love of France began,;well, I can give you the exact date, on the 16th of June, 1954.
On that day, my mother took me to see a French import movie, a comedy called,( in English) "Mr. Hulots Holiday". Up until that time, I had seen a few movies, The Wizard of Oz and Disney and Martin/Lewis films, but a foreign film, never.
From the opening scene at a Paris rail station with scores of holiday passengers trying to catch a train, I and the audience were 'rolling in the aisles' with laughter. It did not stop until the film ended. I was captivated not only by this sweet film, but by its genius directior/actor Jacques Tati.

Up until this time I had heard such negative things about the French and yet here was a film that made me laugh and take to heart all of the actors on screen. The real joy was M. HULOT (aka Jacques TATI) I carried away that day and still have with me, the characteristic Hulot pose  of him tilting forward, with his head at a quizzical angle, his hat tipped over his eyes, his ubiquitous pipe at a right angle to his long nose, his arms bent behind him with his hands resting on his hips. Like Chaplin’s alter ego, he always wears the same kit – trousers that aren’t quite long enough, his Tyrolean-esque hat and stripy socks. He nearly always has his umbrella handy. He walks with a lolling gait, on well-sprung tiptoes and is undoubtedly a French cousin d’un certain Basil Fawlty.

Tati’s background as a mime meant that he was most at home devising visual gags, rather than writing and delivering one-liners or trading witter banter with another actor. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python team member who became a director, has said: “One of Tati’s great qualities is that his films contain almost no dialogue. I find this particularly brilliant – these divinely French films that create no problem when it comes to subtitling. In terms of dialogue, Monty Python learnt everything from Tati. We owe everything to him.”

Tati may only have made a handful of films, but they have made a lasting impression on generations of viewers – and it’s not just the popular vote which they’ve earned. His admirers ( besides myself!) have included Orson Welles, David Lynch, and Steven Spielberg

Tati’s brilliance as a comedy actor has influenced at least two generations of English comedians: John Cleese, and Rowan Atkinson, who described seeing M Hulot’s Holiday as “a defining moment in my life” (and paid homage to it in his 2007 film Mr Bean’s Holiday), are just some of the British comics who owe a clear debt to Tati and his very physical comedy style.

The village where the film was shot is still there, St. Marc Sur Mer ( just 20 minutes south of the French beach resort of Le Baule).
They have now erected at statue of M. Hulot at the beach.
Merci beaucoup, to M. TATI for making this child, a lover of France and all thing French! and for making me laugh so hard, again and again to this day.
I owe M. Hulot and M. Tati a lot!