Another new-to-me Criterion watch, and I went in blind as usual. This movie was hilarious. I was wondering as I watched it, what effect Tati must have had on the Pythons, and then I saw Terry Jones in a featurette on the Criterion release, a perfect coincidence. Monsieur Hulot was not quite bumbling, but there was a certain slapstick quality to the whole thing. The American travelers were equally colorful in their gaudiness. The Paris as depicted was nothing but stark, modernist buildings, made funnier by two obvious sight gags: actual Parisian monuments visible only in reflections and other countries depicted with the same buildings with different decor out front. The hour spent in the restaurant was stuffed with even more visual bits, the doorman holding a handle unattached to a door, two waiters carrying a menu as if it were a corpse. And this is all without even mentioning the delightful, over-the-top sound effects! It was not until the film was halfway through that I realized no story was really taking place, there was no plot, but it did not matter in the slightest. In another time and place, I would be making the Hulot extended universe my entire identity. As it is now, I will be seeking out the rest of the series and probably watching this one again to pick up more.
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