Mon Oncle
Director:
Jacques Tati
Distributed by:
Continental Distributing
Released:
May 1958
Country:
France
If
your issue with foreign films is having to do all that reading, then your best
bet is to watch a foreign film made in the silent era. I haven’t watched a ton of them, but a couple
classics stand out: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921) and Nosferatu (1922), both from Germany and both dark expressionist
films from the Wiemar Republic days. The
former is especially a good film, creepy and strange and having an ending that
M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of.
Both
of those films predated the Best Foreign Film award given by the Academy, and
both are very different in tone and content from 1958’s Best Foreign Film, Mon Oncle. Now to clarify, Mon Oncle is not a silent
film—it is a full color “talkie”—but it might as well be a silent film. It's
is a comedy, not unlike the films of Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd, but with
sound. The closest modern day comparison
would be the Rowan Atkinson’s "Mr. Bean" shorts and films. But perhaps more like Chaplin, Mon Oncle has social commentary running
through it.
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| Monsieur Hulot and his nephew, Gérard |
The
main character is Monsieur Hulot, played by director Jacques Tati, who never
really drives the plot but somehow insinuates himself into every situation. He is sponging off his sister and her middle-management
husband, Monsieur Arpel, a short-tempered, but good-intended, modern man. Also living in the home is Hulot’s nephew Gérard. Gérard loves his uncle, much to the frustration
of Arpel, since Hulot is a major-league screw-up and Arpel wants his son to
grow up with the aspirations and drive that he has.
Those
may be the main human characters of the film, but perhaps more important as a
character is the house in which they live.
The home is a strange-looking place of right-angles and unfortunate
modernity. It is filled with gadgets
intended to make cooking and cleaning easier, but which have the unintended
consequence of sucking the life out of those who live there. There is the garage-door opener that traps
the Arpels when the dog hits the wrong button; the art deco-inspired stepping
stones and shrubbery; and most amusingly, the standing fish in the small pool that
spouts out water to be turned on whenever guests arrive. Mrs. Arpel is most proud of all the “conveniences”
of the home, wanting to show off her home to whomever visits. Yet living in such a home seems like it would
bring more work than leisure.
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| The Arpels at home, complete with standing fish and eye windows |
Mon Oncle is filled with sight gags and long
dialogue-less scenes that make this seem like a modern-day silent talkie. One especially funny visual joke: Hulot is outside the home at night, trying to
get back into the gated yard. As he
struggles, the lights come on in the house, two round windows with heads
looking out. As Hulot continues making
noise, the heads move in unison, making them look like eyes looking around the
neighborhood. It’s that kind of subtle gag
that fills this film (if you aren't watching carefully, you may miss some of them), and Tati perfectly blends this humor with his message.
And
there most definitely is a message.
Hulot might be lazy and useless, but he is living life without worry,
which is why Gérard loves him so much.
He joins in the young boys’ tricks and doesn’t worry about whether he
has a job or not. Meanwhile, the Arpels
are social climbers, and look ridiculous over and over again in being that
way. Monsieur Arpel considers himself
important at his job, yet has to take the humiliating meetings with his boss
like the rest of us. Madame Arpel turns
on the fish whenever the doorbell rings, then turns it off just after a guest
leaves. It’s all pretty silly.
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| Rich Uncle Pennybags (The Monopoly Guy) |
When
the film came out, many were critical of the film’s anti-modern message, but no
matter if you like water-spitting fishes or odd-looking furniture, the bottom
line is this is a funny movie. Tati
directed a number of films with Hulot, played by himself, as the main
character, and this one is considered by some as the best of the series. And this, I might reiterate, is the perfect film
for anyone who has decided they don’t like foreign films because of all the
reading.
The Title:
My Uncle. No, this is not a movie
about the eyewear of another uncle, Rich Uncle Pennybags, a.k.a, the Monopoly guy.
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| Harold Lloyd in Safety Last |
The culture:
There is a juxtaposition of the charm of Old World France, which seems
to be the realm of Hulot, with its crumbling buildings and dogs running through
its streets, and that of the modern post-war sterility of the Arpel’s
home. Tati starts with a gag—the actor’s
names are shown on the signposts of the streets, with the cutest dogs you ever
saw running all over the place. There
doesn’t seem to be room for that sort of creativity and warmth in the confines
of the Arpel compound.
Agenda danger:
Those that took offense to the film’s criticisms of modern consumerism
must have been real fun at parties. This
is a funny movie, poking fun at all of us who feel we need the latest car or
computer gadget. Nothing would ever get
done in a world of Hulots, but it would be a sad and dull place living with the
Arpels.
Best Picture that year:
Ben Hur.
Rating:
The jokes may come off as corny from time to time, like watching Harold
Lloyd with his clock in Safety Last (1923)
or the slapstick of the Marx Brothers or Three Stooges. Be that as it may, I like the Marx Brothers
and the Three Stooges, and I liked this film a lot.
