Jacques Tati: His Life and Art Book

The life of one of Europe's greatest filmmakers and comedians of the twentieth century. Monsieur Hulot, the tall awkward man with the hat and pipe, is as recognizable in his gaucheness as Charlie Chaplin's little tramp is known and loved for being the undefeatable victim. Hulot's creator was one of this century's greatest filmmakers, who scraped out a living during the hard years of the Depression as a music-hall mime and went on to achieve international recognition both in front of and behind the camera. Jacques Tati's vision was to focus on the ordinary and transform it into the surreal; he used nonprofessionals-schoolchildren, tourists-to turn cinema into an arena in which to display the paradoxical business of daily life. David Bellos, the Goncourt Prize-winning biographer of Georges Perec, has produced a fully rounded picture of Tati as an artistic creator, a man who thought not in words but in moving images, and who produced such successes as Jour de Fte, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, and Mon Oncle.Read More