Mon Oncle

Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Related Topics:
1958 - Jacques Tati - Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

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The film stars Tati as his character Monsieur Hulot that he had devised for Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot in 1953. He plays the much-loved uncle of Gérard, who lives in the old part of town (set in Saint-Maur, Paris). Gérard's family live in an ultra modern house (actually quite Bauhaus style, albeit with a robot vacuum cleaner and other devices more reminiscent of Buster Keaton's The Electric House). Monsieur and Madame Arpel, Gérard's parents are trying to set up Monsieur Hulot with a job and wife to enable him to join in the modern life, but his clumsiness and lack of interest intervene, causing chaos at the plastic factory and the modern home.

Related Topics:
Monsieur Hulot - Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - Saint-Maur - Paris - Bauhaus - Robot - Buster Keaton - The Electric House

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The film is beautifully filmed, with mostly visual humour (there is very little dialogue, although the soundtrack is in itself extremely humorous). The 1950s modern design is extremely beautiful (and was so at the time, so much that a copy of the studio-built house was made near Paris), yet we also see the charms of the old town which is being demolished by the end of the film. There is a huge contrast between the life and social (and sexual) interactions of the old life and the isolated houses of the new life where people are aloof. Yet even at the factory this is only a facade put on for the management, and by the end of the film, Mounsieur Arpel has taken on some of the rôle of Tati's character even though he has banished Monsieur Hulot to the provinces.

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To modern audiences it can seem a slow film, there is apparent repetition in many scenes but often this turns out to be something that emphasises the differences, as when the last time we see Hulot leave his house he doesn't leave his key hanging above the door like he has every other time.

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The English version My Uncle was filmed at the same time and had the French signs (perhaps unnecessarily) replaced by English ones and the important dialogue dubbed while the background talk is left in French.

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