Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot
de  Jacques Tati

Sixty years after its first appearance on the silver screen, Jacques Tati’s timeless Mr Hulot’s Holiday will be screened across New Zealand as part of the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2013.

Mr Hulot’s Holiday follows the generally harmless misadventures of a lovable, clumsy Frenchman, Monsieur Hulot (played by Tati himself), as he joins the “newly-emerging holiday-taking classes” for an August vacation at a modest seaside resort in Brittany.

Whilst holiday-makers from the city are unloading their luggage, Monsieur Hulot, behind the wheel of his clanking old jalopy, shatters the summer quiet. To the children’s great delight, he’ll offer the hotel residents a vacation like one they’ve never known before. In opening the door of the hotel, he lets in a huge draft – prelude to the blissful chaos of the holiday resort. He plays tennis in dance-like form, wrecks his boat while fishing, and has an unfortunate run-in with a supply of fireworks. He’s a resident at odds with those around him and involuntarily sows discord – he does not fit in this small circle of very serious holiday-makers.

Mr Hulot’s Holiday is a must-see film for every age.