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Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot.

Jacques Tati (October 9, 1907 – November 5, 1982) was a noted French comedic filmmaker. He was born Jacques Tatischeff, the son of Russian father Georges-Emmanuel Tatischeff and Dutch mother Marcelle Claire Van Hoof, in Le Pecq, Yvelines, and died in Paris. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Image File history File links Mon_Oncle_hulot. ... Image File history File links Mon_Oncle_hulot. ... Monsieur Hulot in Mon Oncle A cameo appearance by Monsieur Hulot in Truffauts Bed and Board, here played by Jacques Cottin Monsieur Hulot is a character created and played by French comic Jacques Tati for a series of films in the 1950s and 60s, namely Les Vacances de Monsieur... is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Le Pecq is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. ... Yvelines is a French département in the région of ÃŽle-de-France. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ...

Biography

Originally a mime, in the late 1930s Tati recorded some of his early supporting cameos on film with some success and thus began his career as a filmmaker. His films have little audible dialogue, but instead are built around elaborate, tightly-choreographed visual gags and carefully integrated sound effects. In all but his very last film, Tati plays the lead character, who - with the exception of his first and last films - is the gauche and socially inept Monsieur Hulot. With his trademark raincoat, umbrella and pipe, Hulot is among the most memorable comic characters in cinema. There exist several recurrent themes in Tati's comedic work, most notably in Mon Oncle, Playtime, and Trafic . These include Western society's obsession with material goods, particularly American-style consumerism, the pressure cooker environment of modern society, the superficiality of relationships among France's various social classes, and the cold and often impractical nature of space-age technology and design. Look up mime in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known as the World Depression. ... Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ... Playtime is French director Jacques Tatis fourth major film, shot in 1964 through 1967 and released in 1967. ... Trafic is a 1971 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. ...

Tati's first major feature, Jour de fête (The Big Day), tells the story of an inept rural village postman who interrupts his duties to inspect the traveling fair that has come to town. Influenced by too much wine and a documentary on the rapidity of the American postal service, he goes to hilarious lengths to speed his mail deliveries aboard his bicycle. Released in 1949, the film was shot in a new color process that turned out to be too difficult to process, and Jour de fête was subsequently released in black-and-white. The color version was discovered, restored, and released in the 1990s. The film won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Jour de fete (aka Holiday, The Big Day) (1949) is a largely silent comedy from the French comic Jacques Tati. ... The Venice Film Festival ( ) is the oldest film festival in the world. ...

His second film, Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot's Holiday), was released in 1953. Les Vacances introduced the character of M. Hulot and follows his adventures in France during the mandatory August vacation at a beach resort, lampooning several hidebound elements of French political and social classes along the way. The film was widely praised by critics, and earned Tati an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay which was shared with Henri Marquet. Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot was Jacques Tatis most famous film, released in 1953. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... // The Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. ...

Tati's next film, Mon Oncle (My Uncle) 1958, was his first film to be released in color and perhaps his best-known work. The plot centers on M. Hulot's comedic, quixotic and childlike struggle with postwar France's mindless obsession with modernity and American-style consumerism. Mon Oncle quickly became an international success, and won that year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (Oscar), a Special Prize at Cannes, as well as the prestigious New York Film Critics Award. Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ... Jan. ... The Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Foreign Language Film is a yearly US award for the best film in a language other than English, released in the period October - September in the country of origin. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The Jury Prize (French: Prix du Jury) is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. ... The Cannes Film Festival (French: le Festival de Cannes), founded in 1939, is one of the worlds oldest, most influential and prestigious film festivals. ... New York Film Critics Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. ...

Playtime (1967), shot in 70mm, was the most daring and expensive work of Tati's career; it took him nine years to complete and he was forced to borrow heavily from his own resources to complete the picture. For Playtime, Tati fabricated a set (dubbed 'Tativille') on the outskirts of Paris that emulated an entire modern city. In the film, Tati and a group of American tourists lose themselves in a futuristic glass-and-steel Paris, where only human nature and a few hints of an older France still emerge to breathe life into the city. Narratively, Playtime had even less of a plot than his earlier films, and Tati endeavored to make his characters, including Hulot, almost incidental to his portrayal of a modernist and robotic Paris. Playtime is French director Jacques Tatis fourth major film, shot in 1964 through 1967 and released in 1967. ... In the motion picture industry, the expression 70mm is intended to refer to a format of film. ...

While on the set of Playtime, Tati made a short film about his comedic and cinematic technique, Cours du Soir (1967). In the film, Jacques Tati gives a lesson in the art of comedy to a class of would-be actors.

Playtime was originally 155 minutes in length, but Tati soon released an edited version of 126 minutes, and this is the version that became a general theatre release in 1967. Later versions appeared in 35mm format. In 1979, a copy of the film was revised again to 108 minutes, and this re-edited version was released on VHS video in 1984. Though Playtime was a critical success (François Truffaut praised it as "a film that comes from another planet, where they make films differently"), it was a massive and expensive commercial failure, eventually resulting in the filmmaker's bankruptcy. François Roland Truffaut (French IPA: ) (February 6, 1932 – October 21, 1984) was one of the founders of the French New Wave in filmmaking, and remains an icon of the French film industry. ...

After Playtime, Tati made two more films, with far more modest budgets. The first, Trafic (Traffic), was released in 1971. Trafic was the last Hulot film, and followed the vein of earlier works that lampooned modern society. In the film, Hulot is a bumbling automobile inventor travelling to an exhibition in a gadget-filled recreational vehicle. Despite its modest budget, Trafic was still very much a Tati film, carefully staged and choreographed in its scenes and effects. Tati's last completed film, Parade, a film produced for Swedish television, is more or less a filmed circus performance featuring Tati's mime acts and other performers. In 1978, Tati began filming a short documentary on a French (Corsican) soccer team playing the UEFA Cup final, 'Forza Bastia', which he did not complete. His daughter later edited the remaining footage which was released in 2002. Trafic is a 1971 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. ... “Car” and “Cars” redirect here. ... Parade was the final film directed by Jacques Tati. ... For other uses, see Circus (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Corsica (disambiguation). ... The UEFA Cup 1978-79 was won by PSV Eindhoven on aggregate over SC Bastia. ... For the Championnat de France Amateurs Group B side, see CA Bastia. ...

Tati had plans for at least one more film. Confusion was a story about a futuristic city (Paris) where activity is centered around television, communication, advertising, and modern society's infatuation with visual imagery. Not intended as a comedy, in the original script an aging M. Hulot was slated to be accidentally killed on-air. While the script is still in existence, Confusion was never completed nor filmed.

An animated film titled The Illusionist, based on an unproduced Tati script that he had wrote as a personal letter to his teenage daughter, is currently in production and expected to be released in 2009. Sylvain Chomet, also known for The Triplets of Belleville, is the director and the main character is expected to be an animated version of Tati himself. It is estimated to cost around £10 million and is being funded by Pathé Pictures. The Illusionist is a script Tati wrote in collaboration with famed screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière between Mon Oncle and Playtime. The Illusionist is an animated film from the director of The Triplets of Belleville, Sylvain Chomet, slated for a 2009 release. ... Sylvain Chomet Sylvain Chomet (born 1963) is a French animator and film director. ... Les Triplettes de Belleville (aka Belleville Rendez-vous; The Triplets of Belleville in English) is a 2003 French-Canadian animated feature film directed and written by Sylvain Chomet. ... Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France. ... Jean-Claude Carrière (born September 19, 1931 in Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault, France) is a screenwriter and actor. ... Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ... Playtime is French director Jacques Tatis fourth major film, shot in 1964 through 1967 and released in 1967. ...

Trivia

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• Tati was voted the 46th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• In an interview, Rowan Atkinson noted that Tati's characters were a source of inspiration for the creation of the British Mr Bean.
• The animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville makes direct references to Jour de fête and Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.
• From 19 February to 2 May 2004, the Architectural Museum of Munich held an exhibition "The City of Monsieur Hulot" in 2 big rooms, one of which had a small cinema sector where Tati's films were played. Some of Tati's original drawings for his sets, posters, a scale model of Villa Arpel (the cold modernistic house in Mon Oncle), furniture of his design and several video shows were part of the exhibits.
• Tati was the subject of a Frank Black song called "The Jacques Tati".
• The jazzy score for Mr. Hulot's Holiday was by Alain Romans and was covered by the trio Rousseau, Tortiller and Vignon.
• The animated cartoon series The Powerpuff Girls contains several references to Jacques Tati. The house in which they live is modeled after the modern home in Mon Oncle, and in one sequence at the beach, Tati himself can be seen walking in the background.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated EW) is a magazine published by Time Inc. ... Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English comedian, actor and writer, famous for his title roles in the British television comedies Blackadder and Mr. ... Mr. ... Les Triplettes de Belleville is an award-winning 2003 animated feature film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet. ... Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ... For other persons named Frank Black, see Frank Black (disambiguation). ... The Powerpuff Girls is an American animated television series about three little girls in kindergarten who have superpowers. ... Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ...

Filmography

Director

• L'École des facteurs (1947) (short film)
• Jour de fête (1949)
• Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)
• Mon Oncle (1958)
• Playtime (1967)
• Trafic (1971)
• Parade (1974)
• Forza Bastia (1978) (short film)

LÉcole des facteurs (School for Postmen) is a short film directed by Jaques Tati in 1947. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jour de fete (aka Holiday, The Big Day) (1949) is a largely silent comedy from the French comic Jacques Tati. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot was Jacques Tatis most famous film, released in 1953. ... January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. ... Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ... Jan. ... Playtime is French director Jacques Tatis fourth major film, shot in 1964 through 1967 and released in 1967. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... Trafic is a 1971 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. ... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ... Parade was the final film directed by Jacques Tati. ... Year 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ...

Actor

• Oscar, champion de tennis (1932)
• On demande une brute (short film) (1934)
• Gai dimanche (short film) (1935)
• Soigne ton gauche (short film) (1936)
• Retour à la terre (short film) (1938)
• Sylvie et le fantôme(1945)
• Le Diable au corps
• L'École des facteurs (short film) (1947)
• Jour de fête (1949)
• Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1953)
• Mon Oncle (1958)
• Cours du soir (short film) (1967)
• Playtime (1967)
• Trafic (1971)
• Obraz uz obraz (TV series) (1972)
• Parade (1974)

Gai Dimanche is a 1935 three reel film written by and starring Jacques Tati and his friend Rhum. ... LÉcole des facteurs (School for Postmen) is a short film directed by Jaques Tati in 1947. ... Jour de fete (aka Holiday, The Big Day) (1949) is a largely silent comedy from the French comic Jacques Tati. ... Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot was Jacques Tatis most famous film, released in 1953. ... Monsieur Hulot (actual film is in colour) Mon Oncle (My Uncle) is a 1958 film by Jacques Tati. ... Cours du Soir (Evening Classes) is a thirty-minute documentary in which film director Jacques Tati demonstrates the art of mimickry to a group of enthusiastic students. ... Playtime is French director Jacques Tatis fourth major film, shot in 1964 through 1967 and released in 1967. ... Trafic is a 1971 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati. ... Parade was the final film directed by Jacques Tati. ...

Writer

• The Illusionist (2007)

The Illusionist is an animated film from the director of The Triplets of Belleville, Sylvain Chomet, slated for a 2009 release. ...

External links

• The official Jacques Tati website
• Jacques Tati at the Internet Movie Database
• Jacques Tati at SensesOfCinema.com
• Jacques Tati overview at FilmsdeFrance.com
• Confusion Jacques Tati's unfinished film

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ...

Bibliography

• Tati Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)