Jacques Tati (1907–1982)

A nice man vacations by the sea.

It's only occasionally funny (although when it is funny, it can be hilarious); mostly it's just slow and peaceful. I don't like it nearly as much as I expected to, but Hulot's too great a character to not like it.

Concept: A
Story: D
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 3.0/4

A rural mail carrier is disrupted by a carnival.

2.5/4 (Okay)

There are some cute gags. I don't really get the characters.

(Nov. 2021)

A film starring Jacques Tati (Gaumont, 1958).

A family has an impractically modern house.

C (Indifferent).

Bitter satire. There are also gags, but they're rarely very funny, and they usually take an entire scene to set up.

(Jun. 2023)

Though he made only a handful of films, director, writer, and actor Jacques Tati ranks among the most beloved of all cinematic geniuses. With a background in music hall and mime performance, Tati steadily built an ever-more-ambitious movie career that ultimately raised sight-gag comedy to the level of high art. In the surrogate character of the sweet and bumbling, eternally umbrella-toting and pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Tati invented a charming symbol of humanity lost in a relentlessly show more modernizing modern age. This set gathers his six hilarious features—Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, PlayTime, Trafic, and Parade—along with seven delightful Tati-related short films.
(source: The Criterion Collection show less