Is there a funnier film than Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot? “The importance of Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot should not be underestimated,” André Bazin pronounced. “It is not only the most important comic work in world cinema since the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields, it is an event in the history of sound film.” Both a pivotal work of modernist cinema – such critics as Noël Burch, Jean-André Fieschi and Kristin Thompson give it pride of place in the vanguard – and a classic of screen comedy, Vacances leaves you not knowing whether to pee your pants or sign up for Semiotics. There have been many comedies about the hell that holidays can be, but none as transcendentally absurd as this. Monsieur Hulot, who was to become Tati’s alter ego for the rest of his career, makes his first appearance here. Hulot’s seaside vacation begins badly – the choreographed confusion at the train station is priceless – and gets worse. Hulot tilts from mishap to mishap in what one critic called a state of “Zen-like serenity,” innocently causing damage and distress wherever he goes. It took four years for Tati to make Les Vacances de M. Hulot and it shows: its “symphony of slapstick” is orchestrated with Swiss precision. “One of the