Customer Reviews

M. Hulot's Holiday (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Is this the greatest comedy ever made? I think so! Jacques Tati's masterpiece is the perfect movie to watch during summertime. He's giving us a taste of a vacation by the sea. And even though the humor is efforless it is quite unique. Some of the scenes will be part of your every day life after you watch it! The ice cream and the firecracker scenes are perfect timing. So many scenes are unforgettable! Jacques Tati' uses the daily noise as a metaphor of the absurd. This movie can be watch on many level but the best one is to relax and enjoy an exquisite and mesmerizing movie. Enjoy...

Jacques Tati did not make many films, but his attention to detail made him one of the best. He finds humour in the everyday world, in the small eccentricities of ordinary people. Hulot himself is a sweet, delightful, bumbling Everyman, repeatedly messing up everyday situations set up the people and circumstances around him. Tati was a genius!

When I first saw "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot" many years ago, I couldn't understand what was the big deal. The film had its amusing moments - Hulot's Amilcar bouncing down the road and that tennis game! - but it seemed too slight for all the adjectives that critics had bestowed upon it.

After getting the DVD two years ago (before it was temporarily discontinued), I watched it again and saw an entirely different movie. The slightness that had bored me when I was teenager had changed into a feeling of wistfulness - the sense that we're watching a transient, quickly passing moment in people's lives. Tati's comedy, much more gentle than most American comedies, reveals itself only in multiple viewings. The film is more like a comic meditation on memory: how our all-too-brief periods of leisure open up and close possbilities for friendship, love, and other human interactions. This is a film to revisit again and again.

I will not review this film as I have purchased but not received it yet, however...

TK RILEY's review lambasts Criterion for NOT transfering in WIDESCREEN format:

1. If you look up this film at imdb.com and click on DVD DETAILS you will notice that
the DVD is presented in "Academy Aspect Ratio" which translates to: 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio.

2. If you look up this film at imdb.com and click on TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS you will see it was originally filmed within an aspect ratio of 1:37:1

3. imdb.com will state if this is "PAN AND SCAN" (and they do NOT!)
IN FACT, here is a quote from Criterions website titled "About the transfer" -- M. Hulot's Holiday is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

4. CONCLUSION: How much could we be missing? Answer: NOT MUCH!

Forgetta bou'dit! Purchase and enjoy!

The comedic genius that was Jacques Tati is that rare type that can make you laugh at life's simple things while also giving the viewer poignant views of the every day. His humor is not mean spirited but finds humor in all the things and people around us.

"M.Hulot's Holiday" takes us to a French seaside resort. Not the flashy places mind you but the kind of place the folks who drive your bus or sells you your groceries would go to. There are the occasional types who think they are above the rest but all are really on the same level. The husband of one of those later types carries out a quiet rebellion with subtle bits of sabotage throughout the film. Into this mix comes Hulot in a car that is an insurance adjuster's nightmare. Hulot goes through his vacation leaving little bits of chaos behind him. A fireworks display that turns into a minor world war or a simple boat trip that turns into a prequel for "Jaws".

The film is mostly in French with subtitles but don't let that put you off because there is not too much dialogue. Tati's humor is mostly visual and it speaks volumes. Some of the vacationers are British and they speak English. There is an alternate all English track that was supervised by Tati but as I said the dialogue is so sparse its not worth it. The film has been restored to its pristine condition and an early short film with Tati is also included. If you are tired of alleged comedies that think shouting at you and using curse words constitutes being funny than go on a little vacation with Hulot. Despite the death trap car you'll have a wonderful time.

Firstly and most importantly this 2004 DVD is an exceptional production.
There certainly are cuts from the original but I am sure there are technical reasons only and not an artistic fiat from Criterion, who would have included every frame possible of the original - judging by their sensitive attention to the presentation of this version.
Now to those who haven't yet seen this film.
It is addictive. There is too much to absorb in a single viewing.
Tati allows you to stand on the other side of the room - or the other side of the street - or on the edge of the beach - and watch people being as human and funny as they always are, only you don't manage to catch all the details when you you are watching in real life because you don't like to stare.
Tati loves humanity. While his gentle, eccentric clown Hulot produces some of the funniest set pieces you are likely to see anywhere, let alone on film, there is the bonus that in every single scene in M Hulot's Holiday, all players provide a muted continuous backdrop of the immense range of eccentricity we are all capable of but never know we are displaying.
It is surely no accident that 'nuance' is a french word.
A masterpiece.

It is now 50 years since this marvellous comedy was released, and it remains as fresh and original as ever. With so many other comments, I should not need to tell readers that Tati is a comic genius, and a keen observer of the human condition. Time marches on, but--in many ways--people, whether they are children, adults, even senior citizens, do not change.

This film has many great sequences--even if you have seen it before, and know what is about to happen, you cannot help but smile and laugh at M. Hulot and his fellow vacationers.

Tati was one of the most inventive minds in the history of comedic film--your collection is the poorer without this masterpiece !

TK RILEY states in his (her?) review that "All [M. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, Playtime] were in Full Screen format (only version available) and so some of the humor was not on screen that I recalled from the Wide screen versions I had seen in theaters."

This is simply not true. Criterion *always* presents the film in one of two ways:

1) The director's preferred aspect ratio
2) The original theatrical ratio

In the case of these three films all have been presented in their *original* theatrical ratios. In the cases of 'M. Hulot's Hoiliday' and 'Mon Oncle' the ratio is 1.33:1 (same as a standard TV) while 'Playtime' is (and was) presented in 1.85:1 ratio. Why are the first two the same size as a standard TV? A lot of people don't realise that the television borrowed it's ratio (4:3 or 1.33:1) from movie theater screens. Prior to the mid-to-late 1950's films were not presented in the wide rectangle we now see at the cineplex.

Dear Reader, I join with all the other reviewers in enjoying this film, in fact I DID bust out with guffaws at several moments, very witty and clever. I saw it first in the theater though and I must say that releasing the film in FULL SCREEN format is a shame, almost a crime. Many humorous things happen all through Tati's scenes. The Pan and Scan technique, if you can call it a technique, focuses on the appearant center of the action while leaving the extremities of the film off screen, unviewed. I urge you to write Criterion studios and ask politely that they also make a WIDE SCREEN version available for those of us who like to see the COMPLETE film the director created rather than a smaller fraction of that same vision. Would you like to view your fine art through a toilet paper tube? I purchased 3 of Tati's films:Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Mon' Oncle,and Playtime. All were in Full Screen format (only version available) and so some of the humor was not on screen that I recalled from the Wide screen versions I had seen in theaters. I was very disappointed.
Give us the whole thing or forget it. Sincerely TK RILEY

This magnificent movie will again be available from Criterion in early 2004. It'll be well worth waiting for.