Mon Oncle

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it's taken me this long to see a Jacques Tati film. I've heard of him for years, but for some reason never had the pleasure of actually viewing one of his works. To continue my look at the films of 1958, I turn to his Mon Oncle, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Tati is certainly an heir to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton--a physical comedian who is at odds with modern society (he's also an ancestor of Rowland Atkinson's Mr. Bean). In Mon Oncle, he plays his customary character, Monsieur Hulot, who is recognizable by his trademark raincoat, pipe, umbrella, and porkpie hat.

This film is about two worlds. Hulot's world is an old one, a romantic Paris of cobblestones and gaslights. He lives in a garret in a charming building without an elevator. His sister and her businessman husband, though, live in a different world. They have a monstrous modern home, with every new-fangled gadget known to man. Hulot crosses over into this world to visit his nephew, who prefers his uncle to his garish parents.

Owing a lot to Chaplin's Modern Times, Hulot's brother-in-law gets him a job at his plastic hose company, with predictably slapstick results. But the film is less about physical comedy than a droll send-up of modernism. The Arpels are self-conscious of the impression they make on others (there's a great running gag about an ugly fountain in their garden shaped like a fish--Mme. Arpel only turns it on for important visitors). She buys her husband an automatic garage-door opener, but their dog ends up trapping them in their brave new world.

Though there is very little dialogue, Mon Oncle is not a silent film. Tati pays special attention to sound, whether it be the clicking of high heels in the antiseptic Arpel home or the monotonous hum of machinery inside the factory. Some of the appliances in the Arpel kitchen are as loud as jet engines.

The film is very leisurely paced and doesn't really have a plot, and it might be a bit long for this type of humor. I'm certainly glad I finally caught up with this man, though, and am keen to see his other films.