Book description
The full story of one of France's greatest cinema legends, a clown
whose film-making innovation was to turn everyday life into an art form.
Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot, unmistakable with his pipe, brolly
and striped socks, was a creation of slapstick genius that made
audiences around the world laugh at the sheer absurdity of life. This
biography charts Tati's rise and fall, from his earliest beginnings as
a music hall mime during the Depression, to the success of Jour de F
ête and Mon Oncle, to Playtime, the grandiose
masterpiece that left the once celebrated director bankrupt and
begging for equipment to complete his final films.
Analysing Tati's singular vision, Bellos reveals the intricate
staging of his most famous gags and draws upon hitherto inaccessible
archives to produce a unique assessment of his work and its context
for film lovers and film students alike.
David Bellos is a professor of French and Comparative Literature at
Princeton where he is also director of the Program in Translation and
Intercultural Communication. He won the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie
for
George Perec: A Life in Words.
He also won the IBM-France prize for his translated
W or The Memory
of Childhood, Things: A Story of the Sixties
and
53 Days
, all major works by George Perec. In 2005 he won the Man Booker
International translator's award for his translations of several works
by the Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare.
