My Uncle

1958 [FRENCH]

Action / Comedy

17
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 89% · 33 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 89% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.6/10 10 25835 25.8K

factory worker paris, france parent child relationship city portrait modernity new building

Plot summary

Genial, bumbling Monsieur Hulot loves his top-floor apartment in a grimy corner of the city, and cannot fathom why his sister's family has moved to the suburbs. Their house is an ultra-modern nightmare, which Hulot only visits for the sake of stealing away his rambunctious young nephew. Hulot's sister, however, wants to win him over to her new way of life, and conspires to set him up with a wife and job.

Director

Jacques Tati Photo
Jacques Tati

Top cast

Jacques Tati Photo
Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot
Jean-Pierre Zola Photo
Jean-Pierre Zola as Charles Arpel
Adrienne Servantie Photo
Adrienne Servantie as Madame Arpel
Lucien Frégis Photo
Lucien Frégis as Monsieur Pichard
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
723.85 MB
1280*720
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 2
1.4 GB
1920*1080
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 15

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by movieed1 9 / 10

A movie to WATCH for historical commentary

Jacques was making a movie to WATCH for future generations to see how the simple social life in the small country towns were going to be killed off with modernism and technology. In his world, safety, community, young/old mixed socialized, street sweepers socialized with Gov't officials... modernism: Isolating, cold, ignorant. Material goods cannot replace a good doughnut and horseplay outdoors. A Vingnette of how the world was changing at that time to where we are today. The music plays in the small quaint town. Where happiness and familiarity go hand in hand. As we see he can survive in that world fine. Modernism is replacing and displacing kind hearted men like my Uncle. A simple loving man who loves the countryside and can no longer assimilate into the new modernism. The movie is done with love and slow funny visuals. It is to be absorbed, and watched as if YOU are the Voyer one summer with My Uncle. The storyline a Social Commentary of post modernism.
Reviewed by classicsoncall 8 / 10

"It's always 'My Uncle'! He's no role model for the boy."

This movie is a little disorienting at first because no one speaks for the first few minutes, and it plays like it would be a silent film. Gradually we're introduced to an assembly of characters, the principal one being a Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati), who we quickly learn is an odd duck in a technological world who simply stumbles along to get by. His sister (Adrienne Servantie) and brother-in-law Charles (Jean-Pierre Zola) own a garish modern home that would look odd even in an art deco milieu. It's the couple's intention to fit Hulot into a job at Charles' plastics company, as well as play matchmaker for the single gent. All plans go awry however, as Hulot epitomizes the concept of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The picture is colorfully whimsical, as well as delightful in it's absurdity, though I can see how other viewers might find it vapid and boring. Without knowing anything about director Jacques Tati (this was my first look at one of his works), one can ascertain a bit of Chaplin's sensibility, and with the character of Hulot, I found myself thinking of Peter Sellers' Chance in "Being There". My favorite scenes in the picture involved the sister's garden party set in the lavish yard with it's ugly fish fountain and bright green borders, with every guest straining to navigate the sidewalk path by stepping only on it's stone pavers. They fully illustrate the director's attempt to demonstrate the absurd by being absurd.
Read more IMDb reviews

5 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment