Les Vacances de M. Hulot

The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning, eternally accident-prone Monsieur Hulot, with whom Tati would from now on be inseparably associated. Les Vacances du Monsieur Hulot is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holiday-makers in energetic pursuit of fun. At the centre of the chaos is the eccentric Hulot, struggling at all times to maintain appearances, but somehow entirely divorced from his immediate surroundings. Tati’s beautifully orchestrated comic 'ballet' is a seamless succession of gently mocking studies of human absurdity.