Les Vacances de M. Hulot Blu Ray – Nathaalie Pascaud, Jacques Tati

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. As with Jour de f”te the film is set in a sleepy French coastal resort which is seasonally disrupted by holidaymakers 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. There is little plot in Tati’s beautifully orchestrated ‘ballet’ of comic action: it’s a series of incidents a seamless succession of gently mocking studies of human absurdity.