Mon Oncle
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| Mon Oncle | |
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 Mon Oncle poster |
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| Directed by | Jacques Tati |
| Produced by | Jacques Tati |
| Written by | Jacques Lagrange Jean L'Hôte Jacques Tati |
| Starring | Jacques Tati Jean-Pierre Zola Adrienne Servantie Alain Bécourt |
| Distributed by | Gaumont |
| Release date(s) |  May 10, 1958 November 3, 1958 |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | French |
| Budget | FRF 250,000 (est.) |
| Preceded by | Mr. Hulot's Holiday |
| Followed by | Playtime |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. It was Tati's first colour film and that same year won him the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Oscar), a Special Prize at Cannes, as well as the prestigious New York Film Critics Award, making it the most-awarded of Tati's films.
The film centers on the character of Monsieur Hulot (who had already appeared in Tati's previous comedy, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) and his comedic, quixotic and childlike struggle with postwar France's mindless obsession with modernity and American-style consumerism. As with most Tati films, Mon Oncle is largely a visual comedy, with voices and dialogue merged into the background noise of daily life.
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[edit] Synopsis
M. Hulot is the idiosyncratic and much-adored uncle of young Gérard, who lives with his materialistic parents in an ultra-modern house in a new Paris suburb, situated next to the crumbling buildings of the older city. Gérard's parents, M. and Mme. Arpel, are firmly entrenched in a machine-like upper-class regime of regular work, fixed gender roles, and the acquisition of more and more possessions. The Arpel's contemporary home is sleek and beautiful (the set was so admired by one film fan that a real-life version of the house was constructed near Paris)[citation needed], yet it also serves as a metaphor for the cold and impersonal nature of modern life. In fact, Madame and Monsieur Arpel are reduced essentially to near-automatons in the film, slaves to their shiny acquisitions.
In contrast, Uncle Hulot lives a bohemian lifestyle that dates from an older, quainter France, now rapidly disappearing under new edifices of concrete and steel. Hulot, a clumsy, bemused everyman with a marked ineptitude for work and responsibility, has a fondness for jokes, animals, drinking companions, and children, and is utterly mystified by his relatives' fanatical pursuit of commercial enterprise and consumerism. Hulot's preference for the simpler side of life greatly appeals to young Gérard, who is utterly disinterested in his parents' lifestyle. To his parents' chagrin, he fastens himself to Uncle Hulot at every opportunity, the only adult connection he has to a world of excitement and adventure. During his duty to escort Gérard home from school, Uncle Hulot takes a break in an empty lot, permitting his nephew ample freedom to join his friends in various hilarious pranks they play on people, which the film closely follows. The film also moves further into contrasting lifestyles, as Hulot gets employed in the factory directed by M. Arpel. Apart from funny accidents due to his lax ways, Hulot unintentionally brings into the factory a bunch of street dogs, which like him, go around as if it's one more place to stroll through.
Thematically, Mon Oncle is a critique of modern life and superficial materialism. The antiseptic space of Monsieur and Madame Arpel's ultra-modern house is comedic, as are their acquisitive lifestyles, but the message is serious: we lose too much in pursuit of what is new when we discard everything else of value along the way.
[edit] Other versions
An English version, released as My Uncle, was filmed at the same time as the French-language film. In the English-language release, French signs are replaced by English ones, and important dialogue is dubbed in English while background voices remain in French.
[edit] Cast
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[edit] External links
| Jacques Tati |
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Gai dimanche (1935) • L'École des facteurs (1947) • Jour de fête (1949) • Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) • Mon Oncle (1958) • Playtime (1967) • Trafic (1971) • Parade (1974) |
| Preceded by Nights of Cabiria |
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1958 |
Succeeded by Black Orpheus |
