Mr. Hulot's Holiday: Mr. Bean's Predecessor

Released in 1953.

Mr. Hulot's Holiday (originally Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot) directed by Jacques Tati is a lighthearted gimmicky French film about the quirky Mr. Hulot. Without a plot, the film might seem somewhat dry to some. But for others – like Director Terry Jones of Monty Python & The Holy Grail – it's a classic comedy. For Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Hulot's character served as inspiration for his Mr. Bean alter-ego in his 2007 English remake: Mr. Bean's Holiday.

During a DVD exclusive introduction, Jones exclaims that Tati’s film was one of the first to bring together comedy and beauty. He cites three reasons to support his opinion. 

Firstly, Jones praises the film’s black & white cinematography and composition saying that “the atmospheric postcards allow us to soak up the atmosphere of this beautiful vacation.” Shot on the coast South of France at a beach resort, Tati has crafted an ideal vacation spot in a fashion befitting Norman Rockwell.

Secondly, he says, that Taiti’s mastery over comedic elements allows him to create hilarious visual puns. Jones says that, in comedy, the main idea is to join two separate ideas into one to get a laugh. 

Thirdly, Jones believes that Taiti is attempting to look towards the future with his use of jazz music and belief in the youth. He says that his third point is “something that doesn’t happen in his later films.”

Love Actually

Every year one of my family's Thanksgiving traditions, besides watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is to watch Christmas movies. We love to watch Home Alone, Home Alone 2, Jingle All the Way, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, several versions of A Christmas Carol, etc. However, one of my favorite holiday movies that I love to watch, but only when I am amongst friends, would be Love Actually.

Love Actually (2003) is a British romantic comedy that follows several characters' friends and family as they find love during the holiday season. Granted I am not one to like rom-coms, but this one I can sit through and watch multiple times in a row most likely because it has such a fantastic star-studded cast. Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightly, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, and Martin Freeman are only a few of the actors involved in this well-executed and delightful British love story. Some of the characters have office romances, one couple breaks through a language barrier, and another couple even met for the first time on the set of a movie as sex stunt doubles. Although the movie mostly focuses on couples, some characters just find the love of their family and friends that help them carry on. This movie goes to show that "love, actually, is all around us."
Besides the story and the cast, the music is another significant aspect of the film that I enjoy and cherish. The movie begins with a British has-been pop star that still has one hit left within him. Although using the same melody from one of his past hit songs, he only has to replace the word 'Love' with the word 'Christmas' and he's got a new hit. This song, although quite a bit of a joke, is used throughout the film and can be heard on the other character's radios or on their 'tele.' Another song that is particularly memorable in this movie is 'Bye Bye Baby' sung by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The song begins to play when Liam Neeson's character says goodbye to his late wife, the love of his life, at her funeral, and then the song carries over into the next scene where Keira Knightly's character has just been happily married and the couple is sharing their first dance. The duality of this song is beautiful. There are other moments in the film that are accentuated through the use of music as well, but I don't wish to give anymore away.
I highly recommend this British comedy for the holiday season.