Introducing the shy, complex, and elegantly maladroit Monsieur Hulot, this film “might contain the greatest collection of sight gags ever committed to celluloid” (The Independent).

+ FRENCH WINE AND CONVERSATION!

The film will be followed by an opportunity for you to parctice your French, as we'll be organising a French conversation! Plus, we'll have a special selection of French wines from the bar! Special night for Bastille Day!

 

 

THE PLOT

 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. 

 

 

REVIEWS

***Bowsley Crowther

"Much the same visual satire that we used to get in the 'silent' days from the pictures of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and such as those."

***David Bellos, Tati's Biographer

"Sublime. (...) It was through this film that I first fell in love with France. I think that is true of a lot of people."

***THE INDEPENDENT

"Might contain the greatest collection of sight gags ever committed to celluloid, but it is the context in which they are placed and the atmosphere of the film that lift it into another realm.

The central character is an unforgettable amalgam of bafflement at the modern world, eagerness to please and just the right amount of eccentricity - ie not too much", - "his every effort to fit in during his seaside holiday merely succeeds in creating chaos out of oderliness. Puncturing the veneer of the comfortably off at play is by no means the least of Tati's concerns.

But, [there is] an elegiac quality [too], the sense that what Tati finds funny he also cherishes."

***ROGER EBERT

"It has become part of my treasure. (...)

It is not a comedy of hilarity but a comedy of memory, nostalgia, fondness and good cheer. There are some real laughs in it, but ``Mr. Hulot's Holiday'' gives us something rarer, an amused affection for human nature--so odd, so valuable, so particular."

 

VISUAL GAGS

For the most part, in Les vacances, spoken dialogue is limited to the role of background sounds. Combined with frequent long shots of scenes with multiple characters, Tati believed that the results would tightly focus audience attention on the comical nature of humanity when interacting as a group, as well as his own meticulously choreographed visual gags.

However, the film is by no means a 'silent' comedy, as it uses natural and man-made sounds not only for comic effect but also for character development.

 

 

HOLIDAY CITY

Les vacances was shot in the town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, which lies on the edge of the industrial port of Saint-Nazaire, in the Departement of Loire-Atlantique. Tati had fallen in love with the beguiling coastline while staying in nearby Port Charlotte with his friends, M. and Mme Lemoine, before the war and resolved to return one day to make a film there.

THE GUARDIAN wrote an article on the town "In search of Mr Hulot's Holidays", which you can read here

 

BUY YOUR TICKET HERE:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/123156

 £4.50 advance tickets (link above)
On the night: £5/£3.50 (conc)

 

 

Part of our season: FRENCH POETIC COMEDIES: JACQUES TATI FILM SEASON (10 TO 31 JULY 2011)

 

 One of cinema’s greatest comedians, French director Jacques Tati has produced some of the most beautiful, inspired, light, funny and poetic comedies ever.

Very little dialogue and a lot of visual creativity, reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton, these are perfect light little gems for the summer months!

 

 

Sun 10 July, 7.30pm: Jour de Fete (1949) + French wine and Conversation!

Masterpiece of visual comedy, huge success, this established Tati’s reputation in France and internationally.

 

 

 Thu 14 July, 7.30pm: Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953) + French wine and Conversation for Bastille Day!!

“Might contain the greatest collection of sight gags ever committed to celluloid” - The Independent

 

 

    

 Thu 28 July, 7.30pm: Mon Oncle (1958)

 Winner of the Oscar and the New York Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Film, and of a Special Prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

 

  

 Sun 31 July, 7.30pm: Play Time (1967)

According to French director F. Truffaut, it is “a film that comes from another planet”. A UFO, but a very friendly one!