Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot

Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, also known as Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (UK) and Mr. Hulot's Holiday (US), was Jacques Tati's most famous film, released in 1953. It introduced the character (which he played) Monsieur Hulot, a pipe-smoking, clumsy yet well-meaning vacationer. Rather than having a strong narrative, the film is a sequence of comic episodes involving Monsieur Hulot, who appeared in a number of Tati's later films, including Mon Oncle (1959).

Related Topics:
UK - US - Jacques Tati - 1953 - Narrative - Mon Oncle - 1959

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In the film M. Hulot goes on holiday to the seaside and causes much chaos. The location was the town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer in the Loire-Atlantique region of France.

Related Topics:
Saint-Marc-sur-Mer - Loire-Atlantique - France

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The memorable jazz score is by Alain Romans. Tati's style is mainly visual, although he is famous for recording both a French and an English soundtrack to his movies.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Score - Alain Romans

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It was actually filmed in colour, and distributed in black and white and in many ways is a tribute to silent film, though there are a few lines spoken, and music is played (sometimes so loud as to distract vacationers). Other sound effects include the hissing of a tyre deflating at a burial, and the explosions of fireworks accidentally set off by Hulot.

Related Topics:
Black and white - Silent film

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The lack of colour hides one or two of the original sight gags - in the first few minutes, for example, there is a scene taken from a holiday bus, showing three groups of holiday makers in succession. In black and white, this is not unusual, and appears as a scene-setting sequence. In the original colour master, it can be seen that the holiday makers' sun tans get progressively lighter as the bus gets closer to the hotel.

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