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Car company ALTRA wants to exhibit their newest development, a very
small and extremely inventive camping car, at the international car show
in Amsterdam - but that means shipping the camper all the way from Paris
to Amsterdam. To that end, they pack the car into Marcel's (Marcel Fraval)
truck and send it on the road accompanied by the camper's designer
Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) and PR woman Maria (Maria Kimberly), who
drives her own convertible. Marcel's truck is faulty though and seems to
need constant repairs - and it does run out of fuel occacionally as well,
so what should have been a one-day drive seems to be dragging on and on.
Then of course, the truck is temporarily confiscated at the Belgium-Dutch
border and the camper is damaged in a car accident ... and when Hulot,
Marcel and Maria finally arrive at the car show, it's already ove ...
Jacques
Tati's last film about his cinematic alter ego Monsieur Hulot
ably demonstrates his strengths as a comedian and director: Tati is not
the man to deliver a punchline, instead he picks on trivial things (like
people stepping over lines in a big and empty hall, people stretching
after having come out of a car accident unscathed, the PR woman constantly
changing her outfits, etc), deliberately slows down each scene's pace to
(seemingly) uncomedic speed, sometimes relies on poetic shots, and keeps
(relevant) dialogue to an absolute minimum, letting the characters gain
depth through their actions rather than words. The whole thing might not
result in a bona fide laugh riot, but an intelligent comedy that will
stick in your memory for a very long time and that you will want to see
again numerous times. Recommended.
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