Mon Oncle – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #111 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

December 29, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

Jacques Tati’s first color film “Mon Oncle” is a visual feast and another impressive masterpiece!

Image courtesy of © Specta Films. 2001 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Mon Oncle – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #111

DURATION: 116 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: Color, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural in French with Optional English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASED: 2001

Written and Directed by Jacques Tati

Artistic Collaboration by Jacques Lagrange and Jan L’Hote

Producer: Jacques Tati, Fred Orain

Co-Producer: Louis Dolivet

Associate Producer: Alain Terouanne

Original Music by Franck Barcellini, Alain Romans, Norbert Glanzberg

Cinematography by Jean Bourgoin

Edited by Suzanne Baron

Production Design and Set Decoration by Henri Schmitt

Costume Design by Jacques Cottin

Starring:

Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot

Jean-Pierre Zola as Charles Arpel

Adrienne Servantie as Madame Arpel

Alain Becourt as Gerard Arpel

Lucien Fregis as Monsieur Pichard

Betty Schneider as Betty, Landlord’s Daughter

Jean-Francois Martial as Walter

Dominique Marie as Neighbor

Yvonne Arnaud as Georgette, the Housekeeper

Adelaide Danieli as Madame Pichard

Slapstick prevails when Jacques Tati’s eccentric hero Monsieur Hulot is let loose in the ultramodern home of his brother-in-law, and in an antiseptic factory that manufactures plastic hose. Tati directs and stars in the second entry of the Hulot series, a delightful satire of mechanized living.

Jacques Tati, a wonderful actor and one of the greatest film directors who has only created six feature films but watching it today, you can’t help but feel he was ahead of his time.  The French filmmaker who saw the Paris that he grew up with becoming a different Paris that is today.

With his Charlie Chaplin-esque character Monsieur Hulot, his second film “Las Vacancdes de Monsieur Hulot” (Mr. Hulot’s Holiday) would introduce the character and would earn Tati his first Academy Award nomination for “Best Original Screenplay”.  His third major feature “Mon Oncle” (1958) would be Tati’s first film in color and would focus on the disappearance of the Paris that he once knew and France’s obsession with modern architecture and gadgetry but also American-style consumerism.

The film not only had impact in France but also in America as the film would win an Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film”, a Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and also a New York Film Critics Award.

Tati’s character, M. Hulot, would return in his most ambitious and expensive film “Playtime” in 1967 and “Trafic” in 1971.

“Mon Oncle” is a film that shows Monsieur Hulot (played by Jacques Tati) living in an old area of Paris.  This represents Hulot’s old world.  We see the city life of people in the area, trying to make money selling vegetables on the streets, people still riding a horse and carriage and for M. Hulot, he is an unemployed man who travels around by foot and lives in an old apartment.  He is happy with his life and living his life free and happy.

A different life than his sister Madame Arpel (played by Adrienne Servantie) who is married to the very rich Charles Arpel (played by Jean-Pierre Zola) and have a young son named Gerard (played by Alain Becourt).  The Arpels are part of the new world.

The Arpel’s live in an ultra modern home with automatic gate openers, a statue of a fish shooting water out of its mouth, a lawn that is featured in a variety of colors with a walkway and stepping stones.  The home is quite empty but showcases modern furniture and the couple’s embracing of the latest technology.  The two show off their status by their home and possessions while their son, Gerard is totally different from them.  He could care less about the house and the technology.

For Gerard, he looks up to his uncle Hulot which tends to anger his parents.  Gerard could care less about his home and his parent’s lifestyle, he just wants to have fun with his friends who are from the old world as they enjoy pranking people who think they’ve gotten into car accidents or distracting people by whistles in order to make them crash into a pole.  Gerard likes that life of living free and that is what makes him appreciate his uncle so much more.

Meanwhile, Mr. Arpel can’t stand Hulot’s lifestyle and looks at Hulot to be quite an immature man.  So,  Mr. Arpel tries to get him employment in a variety of businesses including his own company and his wife tries to introduce him to women in their upper class circle.

For M. Hulot, we watch him as he goes from the old world to the new and having to deal with a variety of situations.  From working a job utilizing technology to picking up Gerard from school and all the shenanigans that take place.

It’s important to note that “Mon Oncle” is a film that has very little dialogue.  Tati’s films are visual and music-based with the use of sound effects to create the actual mood.  For those who are familiar with Charlie Chaplin’s work, Jacques Tati employs similar devices used in silent films with his films focusing on a person’s actual actions.

Also, director Jacques Tati has a way of making sure that there is a character distinction of not just within the human characters but also the surroundings such as buildings, vehicles and animals having their part in the film.  “Mon Oncle” is a visual treat that would be the precursor to his most ambitious, most expensive and most fascinating film, “Playtime”.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Mon Oncle” is presented in color and in 1:33:1 aspect ratio.   For a film created in 1958, The Criterion Collection has done a good job in transferring the film to DVD.  There are some situations where you do see the occasional dust and scratches of the film but for the most part, for a film that is over 50-years-old, “Mon Oncle” looks quite beautiful on DVD.

As for the film, according to Criterion, the digital transfer was created from a 35mm interpositive.  I would hope to see that the film was run through their MTI Digital Restoration system to minimize the scratches and dust but this was an older DVD release from 2001.  The film looks good but knowing Criterion and what they have accomplished with earlier films that they re-released, I hoped “Mon Oncle” is definitely considered for remastering and restoration in the near future.  After seeing what The Criterion Collection has done with Tati’s “Play Time” on Blu-ray, it makes me wonder what they can do with “Mon Oncle” if they choose to re-release it.   I’m sure it would look equally as beautiful and vibrant.

As for the audio, the audio is presented in Monaural and according to Criterion, the sound was mastered from the 35mm magnetic tracks.  I personally chose to listen to the film with audio on my home theater receiver set for stereo on all channels for a better audio experience with my 7.2 setup.  But for the most part, sound is clear and the music by Franck Barcellini and Alain Romans is fantastic.

Optional subtitles are featured in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Mon Oncle” comes with the following special features:

• Video Introduction- (5:07) A video introduction by writer, director and performer Terry Jones who knows a lot about Jacques Tati’s work and his impressions of “Mon Oncle” when he first watched it and now.
• L’ecole des facteurs – (15:04) The second short film directed and starring Jacques Tati back in 1947.  The short film is about a new postman who has a job to deliver his mail on bike and must take outgoing mail to the airplane in time.  But with challenges he meets on the job, will he be able to get the mail out in time?

Fantastic!  A Jacques Tati masterpiece that has its relevance even today with the technological changes that we have experienced in the last 25-years and have become so dependent on technology for everyday life, one can’t help but understand and sympathize with Jacques Tati as he had experienced in 1958 and seeing part of the world that he lived in, changing with technology and modernism.

After watching “Playtime” (my first Tati film), I knew what to expect.  Granted, “Playtime” was even more modern and so ambitious for Tati, “Mon Oncle” is a much purer film as it doesn’t rely on extravagant buildings or sets or many people and vehicles being choreographed to move a certain way.

It’s the characters through Hulot’s eyes and also Gerard’s eyes that intrigue us.  From his landlord’s daughter who we see grow up with each scene to Gerard and his friends trying to fake car accidents, there is a lot to watch and take in visually and have a fun time with what Hulot provides.  There are scenes that I didn’t see the first time, that I saw on the second watch especially through the Arpel side and the technology used.  From the vacuum cleaner that doesn’t need a human, to the automatic window cleaner and speaking of technology, how about the garage door that activates with a sensor and traps its owners in the garage, or the modern furniture that may look visually appealing but not in terms of comfort, to the actual design of their modern home and how difficult it is for the party goers where there they have to watch where they step in and rely on the various stones.

Considering that day in time where people wanted to move forward in technology and people can only imagine what the future had in store, here we are in today’s modern age, dependent on technology and those things we enjoyed 25-years-ago may all be part of the past but featured in a different manner.  One would imagine how Tati would have filmed a Hulot film in today’s world.

There can be comparisons with Tati’s “Mon Oncle” and Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” and Rene Clair’s “A nous la liberte” but where those two films are more similar to each other, “Mon Oncle” is much different.  Part of me feels that Tati created these films as almost a time capsule of how things were like and will never be. This is a story about a man caught in the world of the old and the new and using comedy to show that transition.   The film is satirical, full of gags and for me, visually poetic but in someways, there is some sadness to the film (in my perspective) because there is no way Hulot and I would guess a lot of those others in the old French neighborhood would comfortable in this modernist world.  In one scene, a grocer from old Paris delivers food to the Arpel’s and he is just in awe of the lifestyle and home that they live in.

I’ve read that the US release of “My Uncle” was quite different (Tati filmed an English version at the same time) and through editing, signs were changed and certain scenes were eliminated.  Especially how the Arpel’s and their friends spoke in English while the French side of Hulot’s world do not.  It would be been nice if the Criterion Collection was to revisit this release, to include the English version on Blu-ray.

Overall, “Mon Oncle” is another visual feast from Jacques Tati and with many people discovering “Playtime” on Blu-ray, hopefully many of these viewers who enjoyed the film will also give “M. Hulot’s Holiday”, “Mon Oncle” and “Trafic” (which the three are also available on DVD via The Criterion Collection) a chance.  Definitely recommended!