Mon Oncle

A film by Jacques Tati

Jaques Tati’s multi-award-winning third feature, Mon Oncle – a satirical assault on the twin targets of efficiency and the modern world – confirmed his reputation as the foremost comic artist of his day. Tati’s second outing as the accident-prone M. Hulot takes him to Paris where the aggressively high-tech lifestyle of his relatives, the Arpels, is contrasted with his old-fashioned ways in a scruffy part of town. Young Gerard Arpel is very fond of his gauche uncle and the children in his neighbourhood but his disapproving parents resolve to get Hulot a job or a wife. The disastrous outcome is a masterpiece of design and symmetry and of technically brilliant gags. The heart-warming ending is true to Tati’s vision of the modern world as a confusing place that is ultimately full of charm and humanity.