# Mr. Hulot's Holiday
*Mr. Hulot's Holiday* (French: *Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot*) is a 1953 French comedy written, directed by, and starring [Jacques Tati](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-tati), in which the well-meaning, clumsy Monsieur Hulot takes a summer vacation at a seaside resort in Brittany and quietly disrupts the ordered routines of his fellow holidaymakers.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday) It is the first film in which the Hulot character appears, and the film that launched Tati to international stardom.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot*; French release 25 February 1953 per Cineuropa, 27 February 1953 per the Cinémathèque française[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386) • [3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/400970/) |
| Production | Cady-Films (Paris) and Discina; produced by Fred Orain and Jacques Tati[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386) |
| Writing | Story, screenplay, and dialogue by Jacques Tati and Henri Marquet, with uncredited collaboration by Pierre Aubert and Jacques Lagrange[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday) |
| Principal cast | Jacques Tati (Monsieur Hulot), Nathalie Pascaud (Martine), Micheline Rolla (the aunt), André Dubois (the commandant), Lucien Frégis (hotel proprietor)[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386) |
| Format | Black and white, 35 mm, aspect ratio 1.37:1, mono sound; runtimes of 87 to 93 minutes appear in different catalogs[5](https://carlottafilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DP-Les-Vacances-de-Monsieur-Hulot-def.pdf) • [6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot) |
| Music and image | Music by Alain Romans; cinematography by Jacques Mercanton and Jean Mousselle[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday) |
| Reception | 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (32 reviews); Metascore 90 on Metacritic[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_hulots_holiday) • [8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/monsieur-hulots-holiday/critic-reviews/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and character
The action moves between a modest beachfront hotel and the adjacent beach, where regular guests, large families, and foreign tourists pass the summer holidays; into this small world comes Monsieur Hulot, staying at the hotel and trying, mostly without success, to fit in.[10](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Vacances_de_M_Hulot/10307) • [11](https://www.filmfrance.net/films/les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot/) Hulot does not actually appear until eleven minutes into the film, arriving in a sputtering 1924 Amilcar roadster that is repeatedly overtaken by newer cars on the road into town.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday)
Tati described the character this way: "What I wanted to present with the character of Hulot was a man you can meet in the street, not a music hall character. He does not know that he is being funny."[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/11-m-hulot-s-holiday) Unlike Chaplin's Tramp or Keaton's deadpan heroes, Hulot is often not the instigator of a scene but one element within it, and the antics of the other hotel guests receive equal comic attention.[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/11-m-hulot-s-holiday) Recurring gags cited by British distributors include Hulot barging in on a funeral, setting a fireworks stand alight with his pipe, and toppling a Ming vase, all while trying to impress the young Martine.[13](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/monsieur-hulots-holiday-les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot/) Tati never uses close-ups; the camera sits at middle distance, where a passerby would stand.[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/11-m-hulot-s-holiday)
## Production
In the summer of 1951 Jacques Tati arrived at Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, a seaside resort near [Saint-Nazaire](https://www.edgepedia.org/saint-nazaire) on the Atlantic coast, to shoot the film, and the location has remained associated with him; the town later installed a statue of the director among memorials to the film.[9](https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/actualites/les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot--de-jacques-tati_1032083) The hotel of the story, the Hôtel de la Plage, was a real holiday resort taken over for the shoot.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday) Production companies were Cady-Films of Paris and Discina, with Fred Orain and Tati as producers.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386) Tati wrote and directed, sharing story, screenplay, and dialogue credit with Henri Marquet; Pierre Aubert and Jacques Lagrange contributed uncredited screenplay work.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday)
The film appeared in 1953 and traveled widely over the following two years: Italy in October 1953, the United Kingdom in February 1954, Portugal and Spain in early and mid 1954, and later releases in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and other markets.[3](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/400970/) The Rotten Tomatoes listing records a wide United States theatrical date of June 16, 1954.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_hulots_holiday)
## Sound design
__Sound, not dialogue, carries the comedy.__ The film plays almost as a silent film made in the sound era: dialogue is sparse, half-heard, and treated as atmosphere, while music, waves, wind, and invented effects do the expressive work.[14](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-mr-hulots-holiday-1953) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday) The audio track was created after shooting, with dialogue dubbed in post-production, giving Tati complete control over each audible nuance; having studied pantomime, he coached his cast to mime their actions and overemphasize every gesture.[15](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/m-hulots-holiday/) Alain Romans wrote the lilting, repetitive theme; Tati reportedly spent more time editing the sound than shooting the film.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday) Roger Ebert's Great Movies review highlights the kayak-painting scene, in which the tide returns Hulot's floating paint can exactly when his brush is ready, as an example of gags timed like clockwork.[14](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-mr-hulots-holiday-1953)
## Versions and restorations
The film has never reached a single fixed form. Tati reworked it in 1963 and again in 1978; the most noticeable changes replaced Romans' piano score with a small jazz combo performing the same themes, and trimmed sequences involving Hulot's fascination with a taffy-pulling machine.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday) A 2009 restoration of Tati's final 1978 cut was released on French home video, and the Criterion Collection's edition presents a 2K restoration of the 1978 version alongside the original 1953 version.[16](https://mediatheque.ville-massy.fr/Portal/recherche/openfind.svc/GetOpenfindSelectionPdf/SELECTION_c6883887-b629-451f-b0a8-0dea37960275) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday)
## Reception and legacy
Critics have consistently compared Tati to the silent comedians. Roger Ebert placed the film among his Great Movies, calling it "a comedy of memory, nostalgia, fondness and good cheer," and the [Chicago Tribune](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-tribune) described it as "almost a silent movie done in sound," recalling Chaplin and Keaton.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_hulots_holiday) • [8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/monsieur-hulots-holiday/critic-reviews/) Tati biographer David Bellos called it "Tati's most perfect film."[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/monsieur-hulots-holiday/critic-reviews/)
The film stands second of the six features Tati completed between 1949 and 1974, after *Jour de fête* (1949) and before *Mon Oncle* (1958), *[Playtime](https://www.edgepedia.org/playtime)* (1967), *[Trafic](https://www.edgepedia.org/trafic)* (1970), and *Parade* (1974); Hulot anchors the middle four.[17](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17409292.2013.790632) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday) It also fixed the image of a France in transition: the Larousse encyclopaedia reads the film as a picture of early-1950s France, a still poor and hierarchy-minded country, and Kristin Ross's Criterion essay places its visual comedy as satire of a rapidly modernizing postwar France.[10](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Vacances_de_M_Hulot/10307) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday) In critics' polls of the greatest films, the picture appears in the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? Top 1000 at ranking 306.[18](https://www.theyshootpictures.com/resources/website_Top1000_CriticsChoices.pdf)
## References
1. [Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Catalogue des restaurations et tirages, La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/catalogues/restaurations-tirages/film.php?id=51386)
2. [Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/360-monsieur-hulots-holiday)
3. [Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/400970/)
4. [Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Jay Carr, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/208644/mr-hulots-holiday)
5. [Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Carlotta Films press kit](https://carlottafilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DP-Les-Vacances-de-Monsieur-Hulot-def.pdf)
6. [Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot)
7. [Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_hulots_holiday)
8. [Monsieur Hulot's Holiday critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/monsieur-hulots-holiday/critic-reviews/)
9. [« Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot », de Jacques Tati, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/actualites/les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot--de-jacques-tati_1032083)
10. [Les Vacances de M. Hulot, Larousse](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/les_Vacances_de_M_Hulot/10307)
11. [Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Film France CNC](https://www.filmfrance.net/films/les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot/)
12. [M. Hulot's Holiday, David Ehrenstein, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/11-m-hulot-s-holiday)
13. [Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, Independent Cinema Office](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/monsieur-hulots-holiday-les-vacances-de-monsieur-hulot/)
14. [Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953), Roger Ebert, Great Movies](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-mr-hulots-holiday-1953)
15. [M. Hulot's Holiday (1953), The Definitives, Deep Focus Review](https://www.deepfocusreview.com/definitives/m-hulots-holiday/)
16. [Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, Médiathèque de Massy catalogue](https://mediatheque.ville-massy.fr/Portal/recherche/openfind.svc/GetOpenfindSelectionPdf/SELECTION_c6883887-b629-451f-b0a8-0dea37960275)
17. [The Sound of Silence, the Space of Time, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17409292.2013.790632)
18. [Top 1000 Critics' Choices, They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?](https://www.theyshootpictures.com/resources/website_Top1000_CriticsChoices.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1950s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license