M. HULOT’S HOLIDAY: New 35mm restoration of Jacques Tati’s 1953 French masterpiece November 27, 2009

Official Film Website:
http://www.janusfilms.com/hulot/

Ah, l’été sur la plage: the sea, the sand, the breezes — plus the high-cuffed, rain-coated, pipe-smoking bull-in-a-China shop Monsieur Hulot, arriving in his noisily rattletrap jalopy. The first incarnation of the character that Jacques Tati would stick with to the end of his career, and with dialogue unimportant — although music and the totally invented sound effects are not — and the humor entirely visual. The classic gags keep coming, with the perfectly timed wave-riding paint can; the leaf-bedecked spare turned funeral wreath, with the just-passing-by Hulot becoming a principal mourner; the jack-knifing canoe that he keeps on paddling; the tennis match with Hulot unveiling a deadly service game; the continuous musical score with the catchy theme that seems to kick in whenever anybody decides to spin a platter; and the spectacular fireworks climax.

A relentless tinkerer, Tati re-edited his 1953 original twice: in the early 60s, he cut out some shots and extended others, while re-mixing the sound and recording a new, re-orchestrated version of the score, as well as adding the final color shot of the stamp. In 1978 he shot and cut in new footage on the beach. Unveiled at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this brand new restoration, created from the much-spliced original camera negative and final track, now allows viewing of Tati’s definitive vision.

M. HULOT’S HOLIDAY has been restored by Technicolor Creative Services (Los Angeles), with the support of La Cinémathèque Française. Restoration funded and managed by Fondation Groupama Gan and Thomson Foundation, with Les Films de Mon Oncle. More information on the restoration can be found at:
http://www.thomsonfilmfoundation.org/en/home/programs/restoration-of-mr-hulots-holiday.html

“Tati's masterpiece features some of the funniest and loveliest slapstick imaginable, yet it is also a work of impressive formal innovation, casting off the tyranny of a plotline in favor of loosely associated tones, episodes, and images. The soundtrack, in which dialogue is subsumed by sound effects, is a masterful piece of musique concrète.” – Dave Kehr

“A film I would see every other day if I had the time. I think Jacques Tati worked with sound and music better than most anybody I've seen. He was extremely modern... a blend of innocence and technical invention He has a unique sense of humor, and can zoom in on the absurdity of life without losing his love for human beings." – David Lynch

“People are at their most desperate when they are working at enjoying themselves: it is Jacques Tati’s peculiar comic triumph to have caught the ghastliness of a summer vacation at the beach. Fortunately his technique is light and dry slapstick: the chronicle of human foibles and frustrations never sinks to the moist or lovable. As director, co-author, and star, Tati is sparse, eccentric, quick. It is not until afterward - with the sweet, nostalgic music lingering - that these misadventures may take on a certain depth and poignancy.” – Pauline Kael

“He has a silhouette that you can make into a cartoon; just his walk is a great creation.” – Wes Anderson

“When has a film so subtly and yet so completely captured nostalgia for past happiness? The movie is about the simplest of human pleasures: The desire to get away for a few days, to play instead of work, to breathe in the sea air, and maybe meet someone nice. It is about the hope that underlies all vacations, and the sadness that ends them. And it is amused, too, that we go about our days so intently, while the sea and the sky go about theirs.” – Roger Ebert

Official Website: http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=85700