Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1956)
a film by Jacques Tatis
Comedy can be beautiful. It is with Chaplin and with Buster Keaton, and it is beautiful with Jacques Tatis. In this movie the images are great postcards in black and white, the gags are beautiful in their simplicity and the characters are remarkable on the way they are cartoons of themselves. Whatever I would write here will sound ceremonial when compared to the fresh manner in which this movie delivers its beauty and its humor.
The story is simple: vacations in the beach. And along the tourists you have a rich sea of relations going on: social classes, old and young people, rich and poor, a Marxist intellectual and a war veteran and around all of them Monsieur Hulot, uncomplicated and authentic. It is brilliant the way in which this character navigates through this temporary ecosystem of tourists and manages to deliver really memorable gags.
The costume of M. Hulot is as remarkable. The hat, the pipe and the striped socks are part of the icon that Jacques Tatis created with this character, that embodies at the same time a humble hero and a clown. To complete the figure of Hulot, each of the takes in this film could be used as a postcard as each of the characters can be used as a portrait of the stereotype they represent. The movie is loaded with so many common images that it is easy to relate to them and enjoy the beauty in the apparent simplicity of the story. So much good humor and amazing photography, this is superb movie. Great pirate costume, M. Hulot.
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