Mr Hulot's Holiday
Probably the best place to start for the newcomer, the introduction of his stock character Monsieur Hulot, here taking a short summer break on the coast, is the closest to a traditional comic film. It is a collection of often incidental pleasures and small laughs, a film where gentle comedy isn't a synonym for not funny.
Hulot has one of the most distinctive silhouettes in world cinema – the hat, the raincoat, the pipe, the jerky movements and his inquisitive, inquiring look are immediately recognisable. You do wonder at times wonder what there was to this character beyond that silhouette. He's a slightly perverse, willful figure: the physical comedian who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, who never wants to fall over. He isn't an agent of chaos like most slapstick figures, nor is he a total idiot. He is like Prince Charles: politely curious about everyone and everything, yet totally unaware and always at a remove from the rest of society.
Probably the best place to start for the newcomer, the introduction of his stock character Monsieur Hulot, here taking a short summer break on the coast, is the closest to a traditional comic film. It is a collection of often incidental pleasures and small laughs, a film where gentle comedy isn't a synonym for not funny.
Hulot has one of the most distinctive silhouettes in world cinema – the hat, the raincoat, the pipe, the jerky movements and his inquisitive, inquiring look are immediately recognisable. You do wonder at times wonder what there was to this character beyond that silhouette. He's a slightly perverse, willful figure: the physical comedian who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, who never wants to fall over. He isn't an agent of chaos like most slapstick figures, nor is he a total idiot. He is like Prince Charles: politely curious about everyone and everything, yet totally unaware and always at a remove from the rest of society.
