Mon Oncle Details

Jacques Tati revived Monsieur Hulot for this typically gentle yet incisive satire on the mechanised madness of the modern world. Although shot in widescreen for the maximum democracy of viewing and patterned with plenty of symbolic colour, Hulot's baffled encounter with his sister's soulless, state-of-the-art residence depends as much on the meticulously constructed soundtrack as the visual humour for its comic impact. Belying hours of puntilious preparation, each gag seems positively spontaneous as Tati puts progress in its place by extolling the virtues of human contact. Two versions were actually shot simultaneously, although the English one is, disappointingly, some ten minutes shorter than the French.

Tiresomely long star vehicle, with Tati harping on his theory of detachment, i.e. keeping his comic character on the fringes of the action. It really doesn't work in a film of this length, and the jokes are thin.