Hulot in Mon Oncle :: Jacques Tati Charlie Chaplin

Jacques Tatis irrepressible Mr. Hulot, along with Charlie Chaplins Trampcharacter, is nonpareil of the greatest examples of the everyman. He walks through life with awhimsy that becomes his trademark. Although dialogue is sparse, he exposes the curiousintricacies of life from behind his trenchcoat and pipe. In Mon Oncle, Hulot goes onoutings with his nephew while Tati elucidates the quite arduous issues of red-brickity.Hulot goes back and forth between the bourgeois neighborhood and what can only bedescribed as the modern sector with a neglect shared only by the mischievouschildren and lackadaisical canines that roam the streets.Hulot has no job, but his days remain filled with admiring children, the talkativestreet-folk and vendors, and his meddling sister in the modern sector. Altogether, the filmhas one of the most meager, yet clever uses of sound. Tati can do more with periodicbuzzers and whistles than the average film could achieve with all of its moderntechnology, which is concomitant with the issues within the film. The only twoexceptions to the slight soundtrack are the clamorous and deafening sounds ofconstruction during the opening sequence and the technological mishaps at the plasticfactory, two being examples of the entropy of modern life. While Hulots sister and herhusband stammer around figuring out whether their awkward fountain is spouting or thephone is ringing, the altruistic Hulot contorts his window so the reflection prompts acaged bird to sing with delight.Tati parodies the sterile efficiency of the modern sector. First there is a montageof cars, each traveling at a uniform distance from the next, never an arrow unfollowed. Incomparison, the Arpels (the sisters family) step clumsily along the indirect stone pathsin their garden. The ineffable Hulot chooses either to walk freely, incongruous with thepaths that have been laid out, or to navigate them deftly as if he were engaged in a gameof hopscotch like the little children outside of his house. At times, Hulot can maneuverthe cobblestones with obliviousness shared only by the familys dachshund. The peoplesmovements in deference to the courtyards gravel squares are reminiscent of thecharacters moving around the checkerboard floors of a country estate in Renoirs Rules ofthe Game (1939).The silly characters of Mon Oncle play around in a modern world that makes littlesense to Hulot. He finds himself uncomfortable with the strange angles of the art-decochair and grimaces humorously. His bust with the futuristic kitchen brings to memory asimilar scene in Charlie Chaplins Modern Times (1936) in which an unsuspecting