What can you say about a genius? That Tati was so funny his material was still funny after Benny Hill ripped it off. That Tati was so funny that his material was still funny after Jerry Lewis ripped it off. Mon Oncle often takes on the look of old home movies with static shot after static shot. It's the action in the frame that takes the film beyond cinema and into genius. Watch the wife complete her husbands outfit in the morning, just a camera on a tripod but hilarious. I think the funniest scene in the whole movie comes early on when a small dog growls at Hulot's grocery purchase. I also love the secretary whose dress is so tight she can't walk.
Tati as everyman trying to find his way in the modern world plays it straight as he bumbles everything up at his brothers factory. Make no mistake this film is about technology and mankind's inability to control it. But it's also a film about life in Paris after the war and how the new generation is leaving the old behind. Shiny new American cars outnumber the horse drawn wagon but haven't quite replaced it yet. Shiny new houses and office towers replace the city tenement blocks with their ramshackle floors built on top of each other. The old Paris is beginning to disappear and the new is just sliding in. That it's a comedy is obvious but strip away the laughter and you get a documentary about change.
Tati as everyman trying to find his way in the modern world plays it straight as he bumbles everything up at his brothers factory. Make no mistake this film is about technology and mankind's inability to control it. But it's also a film about life in Paris after the war and how the new generation is leaving the old behind. Shiny new American cars outnumber the horse drawn wagon but haven't quite replaced it yet. Shiny new houses and office towers replace the city tenement blocks with their ramshackle floors built on top of each other. The old Paris is beginning to disappear and the new is just sliding in. That it's a comedy is obvious but strip away the laughter and you get a documentary about change.