Nov 27, 2009 – Dec 3, 2009
Daily
Director/actor Jacques Tati's M. Hulot's Holiday has been an art-house favorite for more than 50 years, regularly topping critics' all-time-best polls. Comparisons between Tati and Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton are inevitable, and not only because Hulot contains barely any dialogue: his struggles with nature suggest a flip-side Modern Times (1936), while his deadpan is on par with Keaton's "Great Stone Face." Tati was also a brilliant filmmaker, painstakingly choreographing each gag with careful framing (Hulot famously has no close-ups) and delicate mise-en-scène. Still, it's his resolutely warmhearted tone that lingers long after the final pratfall.
– Stephen Gossett