111 Mon Oncle

[J M Powell]

NYTimes article on My Uncle. I too hope this one gets a CC rerelease.

[porquenegar]

Here is the text of the New York Times article:

In English, Tati Confronts Modern Times

By DAVE KEHR
Published: June 20, 2005

When Jacques Tati's comic masterpiece "Mon Oncle" opened in New York City on Nov. 3, 1958, it was presented in two versions: patrons of the Baronet Theater could see "Mon Oncle" with English subtitles, while at the Guild patrons could see "My Uncle," a substantially different version of the film prepared by Tati for English-speaking audiences.
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"Mon Oncle" has since become a classic, but "My Uncle" was filed away and forgotten, at least until last year, when its original negative was discovered in Tati's archives. The badly damaged negative was restored by Tati's estate, and the resulting print - in bright, beautiful color - will have its second worldwide premiere tonight at the Museum of Modern Art. After a celebratory screening at 8:30 p.m., presented by Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff, the Tati estate's caretakers, the film will return on Wednesday for daily screenings through Sunday. (Showtimes and other information are available at www.moma.org.)

One of the most painstaking, meticulous artists the movies have produced, Tati obsessed over every detail of his creations, making only five theatrical features between his 1949 debut, "Jour de Fête," and his final film, "Trafic," in 1971. Though "My Uncle" doesn't fully qualify as an independent work, it does represent a thorough rethinking of "Mon Oncle."

A first viewing suggests dozens of variations between the two films. Most obviously, Tati reshot several scenes, using English signs - "School," "Way Out" - instead of the French "École" and "Sortie." But there are many other, more subtle differences: entire sequences appear in one version but not the other, and scenes are shot and edited for different effect.

"Mon Oncle" imagines a culture in transition between the cluttered, chaotic and pleasure-oriented old Paris neighborhood where Tati's character, the reedy, pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, maintains his bachelor residence, and the sterile, modern, oppressively efficient suburbs where Hulot's beloved 12-year-old nephew (Alain Bécourt) lives with his parents, the upwardly mobile Arpels (Jean-Pierre Zola and Adrienne Servantie).

The French version seems evenly balanced between the two realms, though Tati's sentimental preference for the litter-strewn streets of the old quartier is clear. There appears to be less of that litter in the English version, and less occasion for the two worlds to meet: the scruffy, rotund greengrocer who calls on the Arpels in the French version does not appear in the English film at all, and the stray dogs that freely and gleefully cross the border seem to have had their range curtailed.

In place of these elements, the English version builds up the satire on modern life. A brief scene in which Madame Arpel dresses in a nurse's uniform to serve her son a hygienic meal is extended in the English film to include a few more swipes at such burdensome so-called conveniences as hand-held plate sterilizers.

Most tellingly, perhaps, Tati largely restricts the English dialogue to the world of the Arpels. They and their friends now speak almost exclusively in British-accented English, while French remains the language of the old city: of Hulot, his neighbors, the children and (one feels strangely certain) the dogs. Fifty years ago, Tati had already recognized English as the language of globalization, of the erasure of the cultural quirks and individual eccentricities that were his principal objects of delight.

In the end, "My Uncle" seems as much a gentle rebuke of the English-speaking audience as a friendly gesture toward it. Though dialogue is not a crucial element in either version ("Mon Oncle" can be fully enjoyed without subtitles), Tati is using it here to draw a line of demarcation, another border between the old world and the new, between a waning Europe and an economically emerging United States. For Tati, a supreme visual artist, language is just another part of the image.

[Lemdog]

Tati: celebrating France's comic genius of film:

PARIS (AFP) - Newly restored copies of Jacques Tati's 1958 masterpiece "My Uncle" ("Mon Oncle"), including an original English version missing for decades, premiere in Paris on Wednesday, part of the run up to a centennial celebration of France's great comic film genius.

Inspired by the silent era gags of Buster Keaton and the wry humor W.C. Fields, both giants of American comedy, Tati forged in the 1940s and 1950s a comic universe all his own.

At its center is Tati's alter ego and anti-modern hero, the unflappable, unfailingly polite Monsieur Hulot.

Armed with his signature pipe and trench coat, the gracefully bumbling Hulot embodies for Tati a noble but loosing struggle against the dehumanizing forces of modern management and unbridled consumerism.

In "My Uncle," the second in a quartet of Hulot films spanning two decades, these corrupting trends are embodied in our hero's brother-in-law and sister, he a preening executive in a rubber hose factory, she a fastidious housewife reigning over an austere and ultra-automated modern house ripped straight from the pages of a trendy architecture magazine.

The unemployed Hulot lives in an makeshift, roof-top apartment in a run-down part of town full of scruffy dogs and even scruffier children, a real French neighborhood where lifelong neighbors bargain and bicker in the market, and greet every passerby.

This is Tati's paradise, an endangered natural habitat soon to be steam-rollered by the American-inspired forces of Progress with a capital "P".

His Hulot feels out of place in this sterile brave new world, expressing not so much contempt but bewilderment at its misplaced values.

"You don't seem to be able to adjust," his brother-in-law says with a mix of exasperation and pity when Hulot gets himself fired after one day at the rubber hose factory.

Tati's films are short of plot and even shorter on dialogue, driven instead by painstaking composition of image, an original use of sound and a visual comedies-of-error that never fail to surprise.

But "My Uncle" does have a dramatic core, the struggle for the soul of Hulot's young nephew Gerard, chided by his humorless parents for exactly the qualities Hulot encourages by his very being: playfulness, humility, joie de vivre.

The English version -- thought to be lost until a tattered copy was found by accident and restored -- is more than a curiosity, and Tati spent a year in post-production making it.

Much of what is lampooned in "My Uncle" came from the late 1950's America of big, shiny cars and full-throated consumerism, and Tati clearly intended to confront the Anglo-Saxon world with his judgment on it excesses.

The film was, in fact, both a critical and a commercial success, garnering the special jury prize at the Cannes film festival in 1958 and a best foreign film Oscar the following year.

The rights to the entire Tati oeuvre were purchased not long ago by relatives and friends of the film maker, who died in 1982 penniless after his later films -- critically acclaimed -- flopped at the box office.

Their association (www.tativille.com) is refurbishing his work reel-by-reel, partly in preparation for the 2007 centennial of his birth, when Tati's comic genius will be celebrated in various events around the world.

[Faux Hulot]

Only the individual release of "Mon Oncle" features the restored "My Uncle" version.

Call me dense, but -- are you saying that edition actually contains the English-language My Uncle? I must be thick because I can't find that version for sale anywhere.

[4LOM]

Call me dense, but -- are you saying that edition actually contains the English-language My Uncle? I must be thick because I can't find that version for sale anywhere.

The German 2 disc edition contains the shorter English-language "My Uncle" and the original French "Mon Oncle"! You can find this one at amazon.de.

[skuhn8]

Call me dense, but -- are you saying that edition actually contains the English-language My Uncle? I must be thick because I can't find that version for sale anywhere.

The German 2 disc edition contains the shorter English-language "My Uncle" and the original French "Mon Oncle"! You can find this one at amazon.de.

Is there some reason why German and french amazon don't provide shit for edition details? The UK site isn't so helpful either in many cases. I have to go Columbo to investigate editions on various websites to help decide whether to send these bums my dough.

[Faux Hulot]

Thanks so much for the clarification -- I'd probably never have figured it out on my own.

[Magic Hate Ball]

Watched this one last night. I didn't like it quite as much as Playtime, slightly too scattered, and to be honest I'm a sucker for "modern convenience satire", but Mon Oncle does have its moments, most notably the bouncing jug, the whistle game, the hose factory, and the scene where Hulot tries to find a place to put the drink holder. I have yet to see Traffic, but I certainly look forward to it.

[Awesome Welles]

French Anti-Smoking Advertising Laws have robbed M Hulot of his pipe!

[dad1153]

Taped this and "M. Hulot's Holiday" from TCM but the "Mon Oncle" recording got corrupted and was unwatchable (thank you Time Warner Cable! ). Had to track down a library copy of the Criterion DVD but it was worth it. Unlike "Holiday" I adored "Mon Oncle" from beginning to end and without reservation. Bringing an improved eye to set/art design, tighter cause-and-effect timing to the slapstick and a human element (the nephew/brother-in-law from which Hulot's antics bounce from as he experiences acceptance/rejection in kind) "Mon Oncle" humanizes the cartoon character from "Holiday" by making almost everybody else around him a slave to a modernized world that's leaving the old ways (including Hulot's quaint little neighborhood) behind. Only dogs, kids (which Monsieur Hulot is at heart) and old neighborhood folks seem normal, which allows the props of the movie (Jean-Pierre Zola grotesquely-colored new pink/green car, a home that appears to have moving eyes, Hulot's apartment building, the plastic-making factory, the neighbor's pedaling lawn mower, etc.) to upstage the human actors at almost every stage. The garden party with guests at the Arpel's home and that blasted fish fountain had me rolling from laughter in the couch, as did the attempts by Hulot and co-workers to get rid of the sausage-shaped discarded plastic tubing (which of course results in the cute little dog racing after it). Like his previous Hulot movie though Tati ends "Mon Oncle" on a slightly bittersweet note (Hulot leaving his familiar surroundings, including the neighbor girl that was kind to him, for work-related business) which gives weight and pathos to the funny stuff by reminding us that, in a rapidly-advancing world, there's no room left for Monsieur Hulot types anymore. Didn't think I would get much from watching these Hulot movies, yet now I want to see "Playtime" on Blu-ray and "Trafic" (a StudioCanal OOP victim #-o) ASAP.

[tajmahal]

Didn't think I would get much from watching these Hulot movies, yet now I want to see "Playtime" on Blu-ray and "Trafic" (a StudioCanal OOP victim #-o) ASAP

Don't hesitate, run out and buy Playtime. Sheer brilliance. Good luck with Trafic. I'd recommend a rental. A profoundly underwhelming experience for me, but I'm sure others will have kind things to say.

[Michael Kerpan]

Trivia -- the "neighbor girl" in Mon Oncle would later appear as the lead actress in Rivettes first feature film -- but didn't seem to have a very long career overall.

[Michael]

My Uncle coming to Film Forum.

New 35mm restoration. The "unseen version" - the English-language version.

I wish FF could screen both versions the same week - that would be very interesting.

Does anyone know if the French version has been restored or turned Blu?

[gongringer]

I received a Criterion DVD of Tati's Mon Oncle a few years ago. Having been a fan of the movie for years, I was mystified that two favourite scenes were incomplete. My queries to "mulvaney" at Criterion have gone unanswered. The first scene is the one where Mme. Arpel prepares an egg for her son, and sterilises the plates, etc. with an array of equipment visible in the background. Terry Gilliam even refers to this in the Extra feature, even though it is not in this version! The second shot is when a cat opens and closes the automatic garage door late at night. Thanks to this forum, I now realise there are two versions, the second one the English My Uncle. I have seen both and through this forum have discovered that there were two releases. I seen to recall the English version even had a sign for SCHOOL instead of ECOLE. Can someone clarify this for me, and provide information on the availability of the English version that has these scenes?

[Jonathan S]

There is a two-disc French DVD edition mentioned here as English-friendly, but I don't have it so cannot guarantee the second version is the English-language one (which I still have on a 30 year-old UK VHS tape!) It's available from Amazon France of course.

I too got to know the film as My Uncle, which has lots of differences besides the soundtrack - the garden party scene has some of the biggest changes, if I recall correctly. I agree that the longer English version of the surgical egg preparation scene is much funnier - shot in one unbroken take, as if anticipating Playtime. In fact, I still prefer the soundtrack of the English version, in which the character differences between the Arpels, now apparently an Anglo-American couple, are even more pronounced.

If you click on Michael's link two posts above this, some of the differences are mentioned in the advertising blurb and quotes.

[Minkin]

Criterion Contraption

[cdnchris]

According to Criterion's site the DVD is now OOP.

[J]

For all the speculators who jumped too fast:

“Regarding Tati, we have recently renewed the rights and they will be going back in print with a new restoration sometime in the future.”

[giovannii84]

Have all 4 Tatí titles been renewed, or just this & M. Hulot's holiday? (Playtime & Trafic don't have one of these posts from Criterion)

Hint hint... Would be great to have "Jour de fete" in the collection, and also trailers & 'The Magnificent Tatí' documentary as supplements

[Moe Dickstein]

I wouldn't bank on Trafic coming back, but hopefully we will get Jour De Fete - we need both versions (the Thomson Color and B&W tinted)

[peerpee]

Hopefully Criterion are looking at the BFI Blu of MON ONCLE, which is absolutely sublime and would be hard to beat.