Jacques Tati: His Life and Art

Jacques Tati: His Life and Art by Bellos, David. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781860466519.

The life of one of Europes 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 Chaplins little tramp is known and loved for being the undefeatable victim. Hulots creator was one of this centurys 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 Tatis 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. Hulots Holiday, and Mon Oncle.