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M. Hulot's Holiday



Pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati's endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati's wildly funny satire of vacationers determined to enjoy themselves includes a series of precisely choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers. The first entry in the Hulot series is a masterpiece of gentle slapstick.

Special Features

• Beautiful new digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• Video introduction by writer, director and performer Terry Jones
• René Clément's 1936 short film, Soigne ton gauche, starring Jacques Tati
• Optional English language soundtrack, created by Jacques Tati
• New and improved English subtitle translation

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Watch here a rare french trailer for this film:

http://www.commeaucinema.com/news.php3? ... 031&Rub=BA

Annie Mall wrote:Watch here a rare french trailer for this film:

http://www.commeaucinema.com/news.php3? ... 031&Rub=BA

Thanks! FYI, direct link the Quicktime here.

One question...
What's up with the IMDB listing the original runtime being 114 minutes? The Criterion DVD runs for only 87 minutes.
Or is the IMDB listing BS?

According to the "alternate versions" page on the IMDB listing, "Original French version is ca. 18 minutes longer than the US version."

I assume that at least some of that extra footage has been lost. Although I saw a screening at Cinematheque Ontario about 6 months before the Criterion DVD was released, and it included at least one short scene that wasn't in the DVD version. So this is one case where the Criterion edition isn't as definative as a it could be.

There have been several edits of this film, made for different markets and re-releases--I'd love to find a source that tracked all of the versions. Bellos' book on Tati (and an article by Kristin Thompson on this film) elaborate some of the differences, but neither of those sources are exhaustive. I vaguely recall Thompson writing that the first French release included more of Hulot playing tennis.

Here's Bellos via Senses of Cinema:

The original version.with piano-solo sound track has been lost. The 16mm and 35mm copies in distribution give the 1963 remake or else the 1978 version, which is the same save for the inserted "shark-tooth" sequence in the collapsing kayak episode. Video copies available in Britain and the USA are all of the 1978 version." Tati inserted the "shark-tooth" sequence to which Bellos refers as a parody of Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975).

...and which is clearly in the version used by Criterion for their DVD. My suspicion is that it was prepared from a print that's some kind of latter-day amalgam of Tati's various re-edits of the film.

And that is by far the funniest bit in the film too.

Probably the happiest of Tati's Hulot films. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. The scene where the car rolls away was just hysterical.

I just watched this again last night, and was struck by how much the music adds to the film...it perfectly complements the action on film, and yet isn't "cued" to specific characters. I wish I could find this music on CD, I'd get it in a flash. Lovely French jazz.

Also, Nathalie Pascaud (Martine) was really attractive...I've never seen her in any other movies. Has anyone else?

You're in luck (although the title seems to be out-of-print, so you might want to stake out eBay for an available and affordable copy).

You can find an in-print Japanese release of the same CD here. I found my copy on another website for $20, but I don't have the link to it right now. I can post it later if you're interested.

The sound is great on this disc, but there is only one track from M. Hulot's Holiday on it. Of course, the rest of the music that is included is well worth having.

Thank You Fesapo and derivative! I'll be keeping a sharp eye on eBay, as well as checking the used record/CD shops here in Palookaville...your replies are greatly appreciated.

dr. calamari wrote:Thank You Fesapo and derivative! I'll be keeping a sharp eye on eBay, as well as checking the used record/CD shops here in Palookaville...your replies are greatly appreciated.

Yes Dr. Calimari; the music is almost entirely incidental (ie. embedded in the action - people listen to it on the radio, they play it on the gramophone, etc., during the events depicted): I remember summer vacations during the hey-day of "top 40" radio, where a particular hit song dominated the summer. Tati is surely riffing on that: the big hit song, that for the season, was THE summer song.

That take on Tati's use of this tune just doesn't seem so obvious, now that top 40 radio is more or less dead. Another bit of nostalgia, in a very (self-consciously so) nostalgic film.

Forwarded from the AMIA-L listserv -- see it on the big screen if you can!
================================================

Hello,

I just wanted to highlight an upcoming engagement of M. HULOT'S HOLIDAY that is coming to Landmark's Nuart Theatre in LA for one week starting on November 27.

As some of you might already be aware, Tati's comedy has recently been restored by Technicolor Creative Services with the support of La Cinémathèque Française.
The restoration was funded and managed by Fondation Groupama Gan and Thomson Foundation, with Les Films de Mon Oncle.

More information on the restoration can be found at:
http://www.thomsonfilmfoundation.org/en/home/programs/restoration-of-mr-hulots-holiday.html

Information on the LA engagement can be found at:
http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/LosAngeles/NuartTheatre.htm

Other US booking dates are listed at:
http://www.janusfilms.com/hulot/dates.html

Thanks,
Jeff Lang

Landmark Theatres SF Marketing
1 Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level, SF, CA 94111
phone: (415) 352-0832 x2  Fax: (415) 352-0830
email: [email protected]

For Scottish cinemagoers, the restoration is showing at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh at the end of the month

Caught this on Turner Classic Movies (DVR) for the first time over the weekend. My first Tati movie and I wish I liked as much as I liked "Mon Oncle" (which I saw just after seeing this) or Peter Sellers' Clouseau schtick that it helped inspire. In all these years reading about Tati and his Monsieur Hulot character I always pictured him shorter and older. Imagine my surprise when he turned out to be a tall lanky guy, a goofy Jimmy Stewart lookalike, that comes in and out of the picture driving a trashy vehicle too-small to fit his frame (in which somehow he always manages to fit). Loved that there's no big story or statement being made, just a series of loosely connected comedic bits that take place at a French beach resort during vacation time. Tati is generous by involving other vacationers (loved that old lady that only speaks English) and not just Hulot getting into well-timed mischief. There are some well-planned and perfectly-executed gags though, which deliver at worst mild amusement (the constant 'thwack' of the commissary's door, the wondering old couple picking up shells, the spare tire at the funeral, etc.) and at best some big belly-laughs (the tense rope between Hulot's beat-up car and a tow car catapulting him, the 'shark' boat, the fireworks debacle, etc.). There's a hint of sadness at the end when Monsieur Hulot doesn't get to say goodbye to a young lady she bonded with (Nathalie Pascaud) and is looked down by his fellow vacationers that gives the slapstick-happy flick a poignancy that caught me totally off-guard. If not for its glacial pace (not all old movies are slow but this one sure feels like it takes its sweet time between gags) I would have enjoyed "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" more for what it is than for what it will probably end up becoming: a stepping stone into enjoying other better Hulot movies. Kind-of like, you know, the original "Pink Panther" movie. :^o

dad1153 wrote:In all these years reading about Tati and his Monsieur Hulot character I always pictured him shorter and older. Imagine my surprise when he turned out to be a tall lanky guy, a goofy Jimmy Stewart lookalike, that comes in and out of the picture...

Have you seen Truffaut's Bed & Board? Hulot (sort of) wanders through a scene there.

Haven't seen it, and if I had I wouldn't have known that was Tati/Hulot (unless the credits mention his cameo).

It's great, see it. You'll recognize him now, for sure. Funny scene.

That's the first time I've ever come across M. Hulot being likened to Jimmy Stewart. 8-[

Must have mentally cross-threaded the title "Mister Hobbs Takes a Vacation" with the title "Mr Hulot's Holiday".

Nope, I was just floored when Hulot enters the hotel lobby (his full appearance and entrance is delayed until about 10 minutes into the film) and in walks a tall lanky guy whose face (more than his body) reminded me of Jimmy's goofy-ass facial expressions. Tati was a good-looking (and tall) man and, had I seen a picture of him before seeing his first Hulot movies, I would have never guessed he was to play the clowning slapstick type. Expectations...

I've always thought of James Stewart when watching the first few minutes of Tati so you aren't alone. Aside from the similar frame can't think why though? An exposure to Harvey at an early age maybe.

Go here and look screen left for links to info re: Hulot restos.

Is it presumed that Criterion will reissue this, taking advantage of the new restoration? Or is that uncertain?

And for his quarter annual post, here's Criterion Contraption.