The Sound of Silence, the Space of Time: Monsieur Hulot, Comedy, and the Aural-Visual Cinema of Jacques Tati (An Essay and an Interview)

Abstract

Jacques Tati (1908–1982) was the great comedian of French film, probably the greatest movie mime and visual comic since Chaplin and Keaton. Like them, Tati played essentially the same character in each of his pictures: Monsieur Hulot, a loner, an outsider, a charming fool whose human incompetence is preferable to the inhuman competence of the life around him. Tati worked slowly, controlling every detail of his films himself from script to cutting; he also refused to compromise with either technicians or producers. As a result, Tati made only six feature films: Jour de fête (The Village Fair, 1949), Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Mr. Hulot's Holiday, 1953), Mon Oncle (My Uncle, 1958), Playtime (1967), Traffic (1970), and Parade (1974). In their blend of social satire, wry charm, visual humor (often in the form of imaginative physical gags), and ingenious aural devices, these movies have not been surpassed by those of any other postwar cinematic comic. Moreover, they deserve to be ranked with the greatest of silent film comedies. In the following interview, preceded by a prefatory survey of his career, Tati discusses his films, his concept of the comic, and his views on moviemaking.