Monsieur Hulot and Modernist Visions – The Films of Jacques Tati

For our April 2026 Flicks Film Club event we are screening Jacques Tati’s 1967 masterpiece Playtime. A French director-writer-comedian we’ve always loved, Tati only made six feature films yet his influence and status amongst cinephiles remains as strong as ever.

Probably best known in the UK for the popular classic Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953), the first of four films featuring Tati’s immortal comic creation. The elaborate sight gags, the imaginative use of sound, acute observation of people and their amusing characteristics and foibles, without ever slipping into judgmental caricatures, are as cherishable now as they ever were. Coupled with the attention to detail in set and production design, all these movies a visual and aural treat.

Mon Oncle (1958) was a brilliantly funny satire of post war’s France’s obsession with modern architecture and consumerism. We follow and empathise with Monsieur Hulot’s bemused fascination as he visits a pompous middle-class family in a newly built home, kitted out with elaborate gadgets nobody really needs, which only appear to make life more complicated and impersonal. Hulot’s hilarious attempts to negotiate this confusing futuristic world are prophetic, and clearly point forward to the rampant consumerist and digitised world we live in now.

Mon Oncle - Original 1970s re-release French Affiche Poster, linen-backed; art by Pierre Etaix

Playtime, arguably Tati’s finest achievement, reportedly took nine years to make and was at the time the most expensive French film ever made. Tati had to borrow heavily from his own resources to complete the picture. This labour of love was worth the endeavour, though. Shot in 70mm, Tati’s vision of a barely recognisable modernist Paris is structured as a series of six almost abstract visual set pieces, topped off by marvellous last 35 minute sequence, as a restaurant prepares for a busy evening, which ranks amongst the great sequences of cinema. Playtime ranked 23rd in the 2022 Sight and Sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made.

Playtime - Original 1967 French Petite Poster, linen-backed, art by Rene Ferracci

Tati’s legacy and influence continue to be felt. Sylvain Chomet, director of the 2003 animated feature Belleville Rendevous (aka The Triplets of Belleville), also directed The Illusionist (2010) The latter film is based on Tati’s 1956 semi-autobiographical script, and the main character is very much like Monsieur Hulot. It’s a beautifully realised, melancholy animated tale of an out of work, lonely illusionist with a grumpy pet rabbit in tow who winds up in Edinburgh and befriends a young girl. It’s well worth seeking out.