What happens when your charmingly clueless uncle stumbles into the future—and starts pressing all the wrong buttons? That’s the setup for director Jacques Tati’s French comedy Mon Oncle—the follow-up to his masterpiece, Playtime—where the endearingly inept Monsieur Hulot still finds himself at odds with modern architecture, mechanical efficiency and consumerism in postwar Paris. From Tati’s vantage, the absurdities and dehumanizing aspects of modern living are too ripe not to mine for laughs and social commentary. “Jacques Tati is the great philosophical tinkerer of comedy, taking meticulous care to arrange his films so that they unfold in a series of revelations and effortless delights,” wrote film critic Roger Ebert, who put Mon Oncle on his ‘Great Movies of All Time’ list.
Please join us at the Lawrence Arts Center’s Microcinema on Friday, August 1st for an amusing summertime diversion. Show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the Lawrence Arts Center and can be purchased in advance here or at the door for $10. Beer, wine and popcorn concessions will be available. Runtime is 1 hr. 57 min. Lawrence Modern’s Tim Hossler, fresh from a trip to Paris, and architectural historian Dennis Domer will enliven us with a discussion of the film after the screening.
Special thanks to Tim Hossler for creating the event flyer and to the Arts Center for their continued support of our film series.
All films are open to the public, seating is limited.
Mon Oncle trailer | Roger Ebert’s 4-star review | Ticket Info.
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