Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)

Last night's beautifully restored digital presentation of Mr. Hulot's Holiday reaffirmed what I originally thought when viewed for the first time, just 2 weeks ago. It's a five star classic! Having heard so much about the film for so long but never having had the chance to catch it, I snapped up a ticket two weeks ago to see it as a one-off special screening at the Ciné lumière. And, as the highlight of their "Totally Tati" season, it didn't disappoint.

To give the occasion even more prestige, Britain's very own Monsieur Hulot, Rowan Atkinson, kicked of the proceedings with a wonderful 6/7-minute speech highlighting how Tati and Hulot (in particular) have influenced his professional career, most notably with Mr. Bean. He first saw the film at the age of 17 and watched it four times in two days. Highlights are featured below:

Pay particular attention to part 4, in which the verb "wibble" is used in the present continuous form. Love it!

Part 1: His introduction to Monsieur Hulot's Holiday



Part 2: The nature of Monsieur Hulot



Part 3: Pace of comedy



Part 4: Visual Comedy



Part 5: The importance of Sound

Out this weekend!

Some (semi) exclusive behind-the-scenes stuff from Where the Wild Things Are (2009) above, this just gets better and better!

New films out this week, A Serious Man (2009), The Informant! (2009) and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009). All good stuff then.

Hot ticket of the week though goes to Johnny Mad Dog (2009), showing at the Prince Charles Cinema on Sunday night @ 20:45 and also Tuesday night. Remember, £3.50 for members, £5 for non-members.

That is all.

The 100 Best Films of the Decade

And so it begins. We haven't had Where the Wild Things Are (2009), Avatar (2009) or Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) yet, but nevertheless, these are the best films of the naughties.

I've got seven to catch up on and have already added them to my "rent me" list, comments are welcome:

Yi Yi: A One and a Two (Edward Yang, 2000)
Le Grand Voyage (Ismael Ferroukhi, 2004)
L'enfant (Jean-Pierre Dardenne/Luc Dardenne, 2005)
The Son’s Room (Nanni Moretti, 2001)
My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004)
Under the Sand (François Ozon, 2000)
Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)

Have a look, see what you think. I agree with most but the repetition value will be high as these lists continue to emerge over the next few weeks. I have selected 5 abominations that have no place in the top 100:

The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006)
Wedding Crashers (David Dobkin, 2005)
School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003)
Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004)
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004)

Most tend to be comedies, great fun obviously, but not exactly the pinnacle of cinematic achievement for the last ten years, surely. Hotel Rwanda (2005) incidentally sucks, if you get the chance, check out Shooting Dogs (2006). It came out one year later and told the real, non-Hollywood version of the Rwandan genocide.