On paper, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday is an old-fashioned slapstick comedy in the vaudeville/music hall tradition. Viewed in this context, the film may fall a little flat. There is no Marx Brothers-style rapid fire verbosity. The sight gags take their time and tend to elicit gentle chuckles rather than belly-laughs. The level of cartoon violence remains pretty low throughout.  The film takes its time to set up nice, friendly little bits of physical comedy and it keeps the audience on an even keel. This is not a roller-coaster ride. It's a slow-moving carousel, with its beautiful and simple images, its recurring musical motif and its seeming lack of direction.

     And you know what? Not everything has to be laugh-out-loud funny. Not every film has to keep you on the edge of your seat. What this film does do, and better than nearly any film ever made, is establish a pleasant, refreshing, and relaxing vibe and it gives the viewer permission to just hang out and soak up a little mid-century continental cool. Hangout films are nothing new, of course, but in 1953 they rather were, and Monsieur Hulot's Holiday remains one of the best. It's a vacation in a box and it will leave viewers humming its jazzy little refrain and stopping to smell the roses. 

      This is the first of the four  Hulot features that Jacques Tati would produce. The first three are all excellent, each for very different reasons.  In four films, we never learn Hulot's first name, we never see the inside of his home or quarters, and in fact, we are rarely given a  shot of his face close enough to really get a sense of who he is. Viewers will immediately know that he's polite, happily behind the times, and just clumsy enough to bring a little chaos with him wherever he goes, and maybe that's about all there is to learn. Don't overthink it. In this film, Hulot goes on vacation and the viewer will get to tag along at a comfortable distance. Vacations are nice. You deserve one.