I just watched my favorite comedic movie Mr. Hulot’s Holiday for the umpteenth time. After all these years, I still enjoy it. Why? Maybe I enjoy it because I can identify with Mr. Hulot and the characters in the movie. Unlike many slapstick comedies where the characters are too exaggerated, the characters and situations in Mr. Hulot’s Holiday are identifiable. I see my own foibles and see characteristics of friends and people I have known that are laughable when looking at them from a remote perspective. The French movie, made in 1953, is available in French (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) with English subtitles and an English version (Mr. Hulot’s Holiday). The dialogue is secondary to the sight gags and the movie can still be enjoyed without sound. Since there is no story line, it is easy to focus on the humor.
If you enjoyed Tim Conway on Carol Burnett Show, Chevy Chase’s Lampoon movies, Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, you should enjoy Mr. Hulot’s Holiday.
The journalist Simon O’Hagan, writing on the occasion of the film’s 50th anniversary in 2003, wrote that the film, “might contain the greatest collection of sight gags ever committed to celluloid, but it is the context in which they are placed and the atmosphere of the film that lift it into another realm. The central character is an unforgettable amalgam of bafflement at the modern world, eagerness to please and just the right amount of eccentricity – i.e. not too much – his every effort to fit in during his seaside holiday merely succeeds in creating chaos out of orderliness.”
I saw it for the first time on the big screen at the movie theater. Later when I saw it on a 17 inch TV, it lost some appeal because there are many subtle sight gags. On seeing it on the larger modern TV screen, I once again laughed out loud while viewing it.