Mon Oncle
24/09/17 Filed in: DVD
Mon Oncle, starring and directed by Jacques Tati, is a classic of French cinema that also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958. I knew of it, but not very much about it, so everything came as a surprise when I started watching. At first I thought it was a silent movie, since although there was a very lively soundtrack nobody was speaking, or at least when they did speak it was for the most part inaudible. As things developed there were snatches of clearer dialogue, but I was left with the impression that Tati wanted to convey everything from the action. There is a Chaplin feel to the film.
My other surprise was what appeared to be a major American influence. The plot involves a plastics factory that produces tubes, and Monsieur Arpel is the manager, who arrives every day in his large American car. And he isn't the only one driving such a car, as shots of the traffic show that most people are driving similar vehicles. Whether that was representative of this period in France, I don't know. Monsieur and Madame Arpel live in an ultra modern house, which is very un-French, with a geometric garden, minimal furniture and an automated kitchen that would have been extremely futuristic in 1958. Meanwhile everything around them is very French. A small town with run-down houses, a market and a tabac with les hommes passing the time of day drinking coffee or beer.
The Arpels have a son, Gérard, and his uncle is Monsieur Hulot, the eponymous Mon Oncle. Monsieur Hulot is the antithesis of the Arpels. He lives in an apartment at the top of a strange building that at first appears to be two properties, until we see Mr Hulot make his tortuous way to his apartment by way of different staircases and balconies. Once there he adjusts his window such that the sun's reflection is on a canary's cage attached to the wall of the building. The sunlight causes the bird to sing, and he experiments moving the window back and forth, listening as the bird bursts into song and then goes quiet again.
Monsieur Hulot is a gentle man, always with his pipe in his mouth, and politely helping people as he makes his way around the town. His relaxed demeanour endears him to Gérard, who much prefers his uncle's company to that of his father. The boy's life in the Arpel's clinically clean house is unappealing, and he would rather be out with his uncle, riding on the back of Hulot's motorised bicycle. In one scene his father has brought home a present, a rather desirable toy railway engine, but Gérard is more impressed when his uncle arrives with what looks like a paper cutout in the form of a puppet.
Madame Arpel has the idea of introducing her brother to their neighbour, a rather strange and haughty woman who Monsieur Arpel mistakes for a carpet salesperson when she arrives dressed in something that could easily have been mistaken a carpet. A gathering is organised at the Arpels with a view to introduce the neighbour to Mr Hulot. This turns into a bit of a farce, with Hulot spiking the pipe that supplies the water feature, and also helping Gérard disguise the fact that he had lopped off a branch on a trained climbing plant. The wife of one of the guests must surely be a parody of Jane Mansfield, replete with peroxide hair and a cone bra. Her husband, who works for Monsieur Arpel, sets about repairing the ruptured water pipe while dressed in his suit, emerging from the hole suitably muddied.
While on the subject of the water feature, a leaping fish, this remains switched off until a guest arrives, whereupon Madame Arpel switches it on before opening the electric gate. If the guest turns out to be somebody unimportant, she promptly turns it off again. This is a recurring theme throughout the film.
I have read a few reviews of this film and none mention what I have already referred to as the American influence. Perhaps it's just me, but I found the whole thing a parody on the American excess of that time. It is also interesting that many of the characters are, to be polite, a bit on the large side.
The DVD must be a remastered version as the quality of both the picture and the sound were exceptionally good.
Monsieur Hulot is a gentle man, always with his pipe in his mouth, and politely helping people as he makes his way around the town. His relaxed demeanour endears him to Gérard, who much prefers his uncle's company to that of his father. The boy's life in the Arpel's clinically clean house is unappealing, and he would rather be out with his uncle, riding on the back of Hulot's motorised bicycle. In one scene his father has brought home a present, a rather desirable toy railway engine, but Gérard is more impressed when his uncle arrives with what looks like a paper cutout in the form of a puppet.
Madame Arpel has the idea of introducing her brother to their neighbour, a rather strange and haughty woman who Monsieur Arpel mistakes for a carpet salesperson when she arrives dressed in something that could easily have been mistaken a carpet. A gathering is organised at the Arpels with a view to introduce the neighbour to Mr Hulot. This turns into a bit of a farce, with Hulot spiking the pipe that supplies the water feature, and also helping Gérard disguise the fact that he had lopped off a branch on a trained climbing plant. The wife of one of the guests must surely be a parody of Jane Mansfield, replete with peroxide hair and a cone bra. Her husband, who works for Monsieur Arpel, sets about repairing the ruptured water pipe while dressed in his suit, emerging from the hole suitably muddied.
While on the subject of the water feature, a leaping fish, this remains switched off until a guest arrives, whereupon Madame Arpel switches it on before opening the electric gate. If the guest turns out to be somebody unimportant, she promptly turns it off again. This is a recurring theme throughout the film.
I have read a few reviews of this film and none mention what I have already referred to as the American influence. Perhaps it's just me, but I found the whole thing a parody on the American excess of that time. It is also interesting that many of the characters are, to be polite, a bit on the large side.
The DVD must be a remastered version as the quality of both the picture and the sound were exceptionally good.