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Jacques Tati

Film

10 of the Most Memorable Summer Vacations on Film

By Judy Berman on

The weather is warming up, college graduation season is here, and The Avengers has just kicked off the summer blockbuster season with record-breaking numbers at the box office. Inevitably, at this time of year, working folk like us begin to fantasize about vacations — a month abroad, perhaps, or at least a long weekend at the beach. But since Memorial Day is still a few weeks away, most of us are just going to have to wait. To help you count down the weeks (or perhaps convince yourself that trips aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be), we’ve rounded up cinema’s most famous summer vacations. Pay a virtual visit to Barcelona, the South of France, and New England’s most beautiful beach towns after the jump, and add to our list in the comments. … Read More

Design

Fun, Quirky New Posters for Jacques Tati’s ‘Mon Oncle’

By Judy Berman on

Another month, another great series of new film posters by the cinephile designers at the Silver Screen Society. In October, the group is paying tribute to Mon Oncle. The 1958 comedy finds filmmaker and comic genius Jacques Tati reprising his signature future-shocked, pipe-smoking character, Monsieur Hulot, who made his first appearance in 1953′s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. It’s no surprise that graphic artists would take such a liking to Mon Oncle – one of the movie’s principal sources of humor is the impracticality of modern architecture and design. See how the SSS depicts Hulot and his surroundings after the jump. … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: The Illusionist

By Tanja M. Laden on

Triplets of Belleville director Sylvain Chomet uses classic hand-drawn techniques in this sweet and stunning tribute to French auteur Jacques Tati’s unique, dialog-free style.

An aging stage magician makes over a young lady in Chomet’s take on Tati’s unproduced 1950s screenplay. In the present-day animated version of Tati’s story, the titular world-weary traveling illusionist settles in a boarding house for vaudeville performers — including a family of trapeze artists, a suicidal clown, and a ventriloquist — accompanied by a teenage girl who believes his magic is real. … Read More

Film

Rate-a-Trailer: Triplets of Belleville Director’s The Illusionist

By Judy Berman on

What has the director of the gorgeous animated hit The Triplets of Belleville been doing for the past seven years? Well, after a few setbacks and a scrapped project, Sylvain Chomet is back with The Illusionist, a film about an aging, increasingly obsolete French magician who travels to Scotland and meets a girl who still believes in his magical powers. If that doesn’t have you geeking out yet, film nerds, know this: it’s based on a script that Jacques Tati wrote and never produced. And, of course, the animation is beautiful. The Illusionist comes out December 25th, making it the perfect Christmas gift for children of all ages. Are you as charmed by this first U.S. trailer as we are? … Read More

Film

Capturing the Spirit of French Cinema: The Prix Louis Delluc Film Series

By Jessica Loudis on

Tradition has it that every December since 1937, the gatekeepers of French haute cinema assemble at Le Fouquet’s on the Champs-Élysée — a café once frequented by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard — to select the winner of the Prix Louis-Delluc, France’s most prestigious cinematic award. Named after director and critic Louis Delluc (a man forever known for coining the term “cinéaste”) the prize recognizes the most promising French film of the year, with winners joining the ranks of Criterion-ites Robert Bresson, Jacques Tati, and Alain Robbe-Grillet. … Read More