Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - Mr. Hulot's Holiday

"Don't look for a plot, for a holiday is meant purely for fun." Opening Titles

☆☆☆☆☆ Masterpiece 

Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953) is a sublime, witty and funny satirical look at French society at play.

Directed by Jacques Tati.

Starring Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud and Louis Perrault among others.


When I first viewed Tati's caricature of a French easy going, loveable nitwit I quickly realized that Peter Sellers borrowed heavily from Jacques Frenchmen in creating the much broader and more idiotic and infinitely egotistical Frenchmen detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau for Blake Edwards, The Pink Panther (1963). I marveled at the fluid comic timing that Tati imbues in his characterization.  There is very little dialogue in this film save for the sounds of music, animals and nature itself that keep it from being a silent film. Yet, the minimalism of sound, dialogue and story somehow make for a wonderful film of French society at leisure. Here we have the fully developed characters which include the young intellectual Marxist, The fat Industrialist, the young beauty, the old regimented guard, the finicky restaurateur, the nosy inn-keeper and the mischievous young lads all gloriously formed and developed through their physicality. Reminds me of the stock characters in an Italian Commedia Dell'arte play. When viewing Tati's masterpiece, keep in mind what he said about it, "Don't look for a plot, for a holiday is meant purely for fun."

The scene below is so funny, because of the flawless comic timing involved in the scene. watch how they never look at each other during the comedy, its all internal timing.

Film Scene

Trivia - Christopher Lee dubbed the entire English version.

Film Trailer

l'Hotel de la Plage Saint-Marc-sur-Mer

The picture above is of the original hotel used in the film. They erected a statue of Tati's loveable character Mr. Hulot. 

Film Photos - Posters

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Film Transcript

Note - If you would like to view Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - Mr. Hulot's Holiday to rent or buy please click on the link below the comments. It is sponsored by Google, so it is the safest and most secure way to get a copy for your film library.