Fun and Misadventure Plaque "Mr. Hulot's Holiday"

For all of the hypotheticals of comparing famous American entertainers to their international counterparts, the longest comparison seems to have always been “who is the Charlie Chaplin of [insert international comparison]?” For England, people seem to agree that the person most like Chaplin is Rowan Atkinson. For France, many point to Jacques Tati and his creation of Mr. Hulot, a largely silent man who walks the street, interacts with bemused spectators, and ultimately causes a lot of friction between himself and them. While it is easy to see Hulot’s largely silent demeanor, emphasis on facial expressions, and specialty-timed physical humor as being in that same comical vein, that’s about the only thing I would put in the same category as Chaplin’s Little Tramp.

The Tramp may have been lovable, but he is called the Little Tramp for a reason: he is scheming, elusive, and is the direct cause of most of the uncomfortable situations he finds himself in. He will put something down, do a little distraction, and then steal the food from a legitimately paying customer. Sure, he’s trying to survive, but he is still intentionally outmaneuvering people. That may be why so many characters in his movies seem less forgiving of his antics. In Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, we are introduced to the titular Mr. Hulot who, it turns out, is a gentleman and a scholar. Like everyone else in the movie, he arrives at a beachside hotel with the sole purpose of fun and relaxation. Technology confuses him while his limited vocabulary makes discussions difficult.

Yet he is rarely malicious in his interactions with people, and (with the exception of a particularly stuck-up waiter) most people are quick to forgive him for any shenanigans he is directly (or indirectly) involved in. If he must give someone a kick in the rear, it is only because he suspects them of doing something indecent (which is also a misreading of the situation). Another major difference is that while Chaplin’s Tramp is the center of the story, Hulot is almost an unwitting participant in his own story. He checks into the hotel, but he is no more of a disturbance than any other guest. If he wasn’t in the title, he would likely be just another tourist finding rest and relaxation more difficult due to everyday stuff that makes vacation shenanigans frustrating at the moment (but hilarious in hindsight).

The fact that he seems to be the most unlucky tourist may be why the focus is on him, even though there is no narrative advantage of him being the title character. Though that may also be because Mr. Hulot’s Holiday doesn’t have a traditional story trajectory: tourists go on vacation, suffer various forms of frustration, and then laugh it off and go back to trying to relax. There is conflict, but it is minimalist and neatly wraps itself up in the way we likely would just to salvage what’s left of the trip. The joy isn’t in the narrative beats of the screenplay; it’s in the things that happen in the background that blend to the foreground. It’s how everyone’s life intertwines with everyone else, creating some unavoidable conflicts that are no one's fault in particular.

It highlights that while Chaplin was good at being the center of the humor, Tati was great at using the whole scenario as the setup for the joke. While Chaplin’s influence is there, you can also see how Tati elevated that inspiration to make his jokes grander (a technique he would lean into with more ambitious projects later in his career). That being said, this format, admittedly, makes sitting through the movie in one sitting a bit difficult. After thirty minutes of watching a film that feels more like a string of short films tied together, the thought of sticking around for an additional hour tends to be a more taxing idea than a fun one.

In the age of streaming and DVD, watching this in three shorter sittings may make more sense so the affair doesn’t overstay its welcome (just think about how repetitive the Tom & Jerry formula becomes if you have to sit through two hours of shorts in one sitting). As noted before, Mr. Hulot would eventually appear in more substantial, more discussion-worthy films, but Mr. Hulot’s Holiday is a lot of fun whether you watch it in one sitting or several. What is even more interesting is that watching it in hindsight, having seen My Uncle and Playtime later on down the road, shows not only the simple roots of the character, but the seeds of how Tati would bring this lovable gentleman into much grander visions.

P.S. Speaking of Rowan Atkinson, the British actor actually said Mr. Bean was inspired more by Mr. Hulot than the Little Tramp. And look at how he concluded the series: with a movie called Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I suppose that makes Atkinson Britain’s version of Jacques Tati.