INDEPENDENT FILM FOR INDEPENDENT MINDS

In a boxy home with a boxy garden, a clockwork family lives a clockwork life. Mrs. Arpel (Adrienne Servantie) bounces about in her lime green housecoat, wiping everything down with antiseptic glee. When visitors come, she clicks on the metal fish fountain and show off her uncomfortable furniture with pride. Mr. Arpel (Jean-Pierre Zola) drives in his garish sedan, each car on the highway the same distance apart. He parks in his designated box in front of his designated office at the plastic hose factory. Little Gerard (Alain Bécourt) finds his parents' world stifling, and nothing pleases him more than a visit from his favorite uncle. That uncle is none other than Mr. Hulot (Jacques Tati). In Hulot's world, ordinary people follow seemingly free and chaotic trajectories. Hulot's world is not one of clockworks, but of time he invents himself, in his very interactions with the world. When he discovers that the bird outside his window sings in sunlight, he angles his window so that the reflected sunlight makes the bird sing all the time. For Hulot, a little chaos is part of everyday life. But the world of modern technocracy may not have room for him.