Jacques Tati: „Monsieur Hulot's Holidays“ (1953)
With the beginning of the sound film era at the end of the 1920s, the visual comedy in sporting performances declined. Only a few, such as Jacques Tati, remained faithful to slapstick based on body language. In the short film "Soigne ton gauche" (Keep Your Left Up) by Jacques Becker (1936), he satirizes boxing. In his first feature-length film "Jour du fête" (The Big Day) in 1949, he ironizes professional cycling when the cycling letter carrier, played by himself, effortlessly overtakes the peloton in a road bike race. And in his second feature film "Les vacances de monsieur Hulot" (Monsieur Hulot's Holidays) in 1953, he caricatures the sporting activities in a vacation resort on the Atlantic coast: from organized beach gymnastics to swimming, sailing, horse riding and table tennis. The highlight is a tennis match. Hulot (Tati) has noticed that this sport has a certain nimbus among the vacationers and wants to be part of it. He buys a tennis racket and the sales clerk shows him how to hold it. Although this is wrong, it gives Hulot an unexpected momentum when serving, so that he defeats his opponents - first two ladies, then the sports beau of the coastal town. Incidentally, in 1977 Tati made a documentary about a European Cup soccer match played by SC Bastia, which his daughter Sophie Tatischeff completed 23 years later: "Forza Bastia".
The tennis match as an excerpt from the 1978 version (TC 00:47:35- 00:49:54).
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