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24-638: Mon Oncle ( French pronunciation: [mɔ̃n‿ɔ̃kl] ; transl.   My Uncle ) is a 1958 comedy film directed by Jacques Tati . The first of Tati's films to be released in colour, Mon Oncle won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film , a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival , and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film , receiving more honours than any of Tati's other cinematic works. The film centers on

48-723: A camp sensibility lay behind the successful Carry On films , while in America subversive independent film-maker John Waters made camp films for college audiences with his drag queen friends that eventually found a mainstream audience. The success of the American television show Saturday Night Live drove decades of cinema with racier content allowed on television drawing on the program's stars and characters, with bigger successes including Wayne's World , Mean Girls , Ghostbusters and Animal House . Parody and joke-based films continue to find audiences. While comedic films are among

72-418: A happy ending , with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre . Some of the earliest silent films were slapstick comedies , which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music

96-581: A child himself at times, is completely at home with Gérard, but also completely ineffectual at controlling his horseplay with his school friends, who take delight in tormenting adults with practical jokes. Exasperated at their relative's perceived immaturity, the Arpels soon scheme to saddle him with the twin yokes of family and business responsibilities. The sets for the film, designed by Jacques Lagrange, were built in 1956 at Victorine Studios (now known as Studios Riviera), near Nice , and torn down after filming

120-518: A kitchen filled with deafeningly loud appliances, every facet of Villa Arpel emphasizes the impracticality of a dedication to superficial aesthetics and electrical gadgets over the necessities of daily living. Despite the superficial beauty of its modern design, the Arpels' home is entirely impersonal, as are the Arpels themselves. In fact, M. and Mme. Arpel have completely subordinated their individuality to maintain their social position and their shiny new possessions. Tati emphasises his themes surrounding

144-522: A reactionary or even poujadiste view of an emerging French consumer society, which had lately embraced a new wave of industrial modernization and a more rigid social structure. However, this criticism soon gave way in the face of the film's huge popularity in France and abroad – even in the United States, where rampant discretionary consumption and a recession had caused those on both the right and

168-549: A separate genre, but rather, provides a better understanding of the film. Victorine Studios Originally built in 1921 in an attempt to create a Hollywood -style studio on the French Riviera , the major figures behind the new venture were the producers Louis Nalpas and Serge Sandberg . Initially constructed in the early glasshouse style, the facility was soon converted into a more modern electrified design. It had seven sound stages . They worked in parallel with

192-440: A sound effect. The drifting noises of heated arguments and idle banter complement other sounds and the physical movements of the characters, intensifying comedic effect. The complex soundtrack also uses music to characterise environments, including a lively musical theme that represents Hulot's world of comical inefficiency and freedom. At its debut in 1958 in France, Mon Oncle was denounced by some critics for what they viewed as

216-427: Is stylistically rather than functionally designed, creating an environment completely indifferent to the comfort, or lack of comfort, of its occupants. In choosing modern architecture to punctuate his satire, Tati once stated, " Les lignes géométriques ne rendent pas les gens aimables " ("Geometrical lines do not produce likeable people"). From inconveniently located stepping stones, to difficult-to-sit-on furniture, to

240-473: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , Mon Oncle holds an approval rating of 94% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Jacques Tati's most accessible film is a paean to gentle values and observing the small details of life." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said

264-497: The Arpel lifestyle (as well as M. Arpel's automatonic workplace, Plastac ) with monochromatic shades and cloudy days. By contrast, Monsieur Hulot lives in an old and run-down city district. He is unemployed, and gets around town either on foot or on a VéloSoleX motorised bicycle. Gérard, utterly bored by the sterility and monotony of his life with his parents, fastens himself to his uncle at every opportunity. Hulot, little more than

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288-523: The capital at Paris. Nice was located in the southern zone of Vichy France . Many technicians and actors fled south to avoid the Nazis, and found work in productions at the Victorine. Immediately after the war, the studios resumed their subordinate role to Paris and production there was irregular. For a while (2000–2017), they were managed by a private company and were renamed "Studios Riviera" but

312-414: The crumbling stone buildings of the old neighborhoods of the city. Gérard's parents are entrenched in a machine-like existence of work, fixed gender roles, the acquisition of status through possessions, and conspicuous displays to impress guests, such as the fish-shaped fountain at the center of the garden that, in a running gag , Mme. Arpel activates only for important visitors. Each element of Villa Arpel

336-748: The film had a "cast of colorful and adroit supporting players, all nonprofessionals" and a "gay but somewhat monotonous musical score"; he called the film "perceptibly contrived when it lingers too long and gets too deeply into the dullness of things mechanical. After you've pushed one button and one modernistic face, you've pushed them all. Mr. Hulot [as played by Tati] is the focus of amusement, not electrical doors and machines that squeeze out plastic hose." Crowther noted that its style of humor "was done superbly more than twenty-five years ago by René Clair in À Nous la Liberté and afterward by Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times ." Variety said that although it

360-515: The film industry due to their popularity. In The Screenwriters Taxonomy (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character, and story, and therefore, the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, his taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of film that contains at least a dozen different sub-types. A number of hybrid genres have emerged, such as action comedy and romantic comedy . The first comedy film

384-416: The left to question the economic and social values of the era. The film was another box office success for Tati, with a total of 4,576,928 admissions in France. M. Hulot is the dreamy, impractical, and adored uncle of nine-year-old Gérard Arpel, who lives with his materialistic parents, M. and Mme. Arpel, in an ultra-modern geometric house and garden, Villa Arpel, in a new suburb of Paris, situated just beyond

408-754: The most popular with audiences at the box office, there is an 'historical bias against a close and serious consideration of comedy' when it comes to critical reception and conferring of awards, such as at the Academy Awards . Film writer Cailian Savage observes "Comedies have won Oscars, although they’ve usually been comedy-dramas, involved very depressing scenes, or appealed to stone-hearted drama lovers in some other way, such as Shakespeare in Love ." According to Williams' taxonomy , all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) sub-genres. This combination does not create

432-637: The other main French studios which were clustered in Paris . A key figure in the development of the Victorine was the producer Louis Nalpas . A second studio complex was located in Nice, Saint-Laurent-du-Var Studios which existed from 1920 to 1944. During the Second World War , the studios took on greater importance. Following the defeat of France , half of the country was occupied by Germany including

456-456: The socially awkward yet lovable character of Monsieur Hulot and his quixotic struggle with postwar France's infatuation with modern architecture, mechanical efficiency and consumerism . As with most Tati films, Mon Oncle is largely a visual comedy; colour and lighting are employed to help tell the story. The dialogue in Mon Oncle is barely audible, and largely subordinated to the role of

480-512: The use of comedy film to make social statements by building their narratives around sensitive cultural, political or social issues. Such films include Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and The Graduate . In America, the sexual revolution drove an appetite for comedies that celebrated and parodied changing social morals, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Fanny Hill . In Britain,

504-414: Was L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), directed and produced by film pioneer Louis Lumière . Less than a minute long, it shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most notable comedy actors of the silent film era (1895–1927) were Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton , though they were able to make the transition into “ talkies ” after the 1920s. Film-makers in the 1960s skillfully employed

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528-438: Was "[s]omewhat long for a comedy, Jacques Tati's film has inventiveness, gags, warmth and a 'poetic' approach to satire"; they complemented the film's "expert blocking out of the characters, creative use of sound, and eschewing of all useless dialog." Comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor . These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have

552-616: Was complete. An English version of the film, nine minutes shorter than the original and released as My Uncle , was filmed at the same time as the French-language version. There are slight differences in the staging of the scenes and in the performances. In the English-language release, French signs are replaced by ones in English; important dialogue is dubbed in English, although background voices remain in French. On

576-417: Was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue . Comedy, compared with other film genres , places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to

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