My Uncle
Jan 28 - Feb 03, 2011
(Jacques Tati, France, 1958, 35mm, 110 min)
Rare, restored English-language version!
New 35mm print!
In 1958, France's comic genius Jacques Tati presented New York City with his latest visually inventive work. The catch was that it appeared in two different versions: patrons of the Baronet Theater could see Mon Oncle with English subtitles (a film we screened back in 2007 while celebrating Tati's centennial). Over at the Guild, patrons could see My Uncle, a substantially different version of the film prepared by Tati for English-speaking audiences. The latter remained a mostly forgotten work until it was rediscovered in Tati’s archives in 2004 and restored.
Though My Uncle doesn't fully qualify as an independent work, it does represent a thorough rethinking of Mon Oncle. The film has dozens of variations from Mon Oncle. Most obviously, Tati reshot several scenes using English signs, "School," "Way Out" instead of the French "École" and "Sortie." But there are many other, more subtle differences: entire sequences appear in one version but not the other, and scenes are shot and edited for different effect. The slapstick prevails when Monsieur Hulot is let loose in the ultramodern home of his brother-in-law, and in an antiseptic factory that manufactures plastic hose. My Uncle remains a delightful satire of mechanized living. This version is not on video and has been rarely seen since the 1950s.
