Mon Oncle by Jacques Tati was a fantastic movie filmed in 1958. It was one of a series in which he portrayed himself as a bumbling figure ill at ease with consumerism and American 'mod cons'. Tati trained within the family framing company near Place Vendome and caused much dismay to his relatives when he became a performance artist. His movies are wonderful in the way they mix modern culture with his seeming naivety... leading us to to view this new world order as somewhat lacking in depth.
As I love all things 50's these productions are like a reference book to me. This movie in particular was special as it was his first ever filmed in colour. Like Stanley Kubrick, Tati was known for his attention to the minutest of details in his projects, although I daresay the budgets would have been very different. For me I see something else when I look at his work. His background working with framing seems to have given him the remarkable ability to do the same with a shot or scene. Now I'm just waiting for SBS to bring back a series on his films. They truly are seriously underrated masterpieces of contemporary film-making.
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| Scene from Mon Oncle 1958 |
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