Monsieur Hulot comes to a beachside hotel for a vacation and accidentally, but good-naturedly, causes havoc.
Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort, where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s masterpiece of gentle slapstick is a series of effortlessly well-choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers; it was the first entry in the Hulot series and the film that launched its maker to international stardom.
"There is something detached, austere, unyielding, about the ostensibly soft and clumsy Hulot." - Sight and Sound
"The film has a gentle sense of whimsy, and its observations on life's little annoyances-like the distracting clunk of a set of swinging doors-are benign." - The Dissolve
"There are some real laughs in it, but Mr. Hulot's Holiday gives us something rarer, an amused affection for human nature -- so odd, so valuable, so particular." - Roger Ebert