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A long time before there was Mr. Bean, the silent English bumbler who would often cause excessive problems for himself and those around him, there was Mr. Hulot. When it comes to these silent goofballs, Jacques Tati's Mr. Hulot may be the very best of them all. Granted, even this French creation of the 1950s was heavily inspired by two American greats, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Still, when you watch a movie like 1954's Mr. Hulot's Holiday, it's hard not to see where British comedian Rowan Atkinson got all of his inspiration for Mr. Bean.

Jacques Tati isn't a very well-known quantity on our shores, despite his films having a lasting effect on a certain brand of comedy that could be seen in even an animated movie like WALL-E. Mr. Hulot's Holiday isn't concerned with big plot points or major character development; all is about setting jokes up and then letting them get paid off. As the little Pixar robot trundled around a vacated planet, so Mr. Hulot gamely walks around a beachside villa, says nothing, and ends up getting himself in a few scrapes. As I mentioned above, the easiest touchstone for folks in the 21st century is Mr. Bean, who did pretty much the same thing as Tati's Hulot, even in his most recent movie, Mr. Bean's Holiday. If you've not seen that 2007 comedy, let's just say that not having Willem Dafoe in his film didn't hurt Tati at all.

Still, watching Mr. Hulot's Holiday, the plot of which is as simple as saying that Hulot goes to the villa on vacation and gets into trouble, requires a bit of patience. As it came not only from a different era of filmmaking, but a different country with different cultural norms, the movie doesn't feel like any kind of comedy we'd seen in America or even the United Kingdom. Tati is just as interested here in making statements about various parts of the French population, specifically those who are heavily invested in politics, for right or wrong reasons. Oh, there's plenty of humor to be had, as when Hulot has some problems changing a flat tire, or has a run-in with fireworks, or the confusion that arises with a squeaky door. However, if you go in with the mindset that you're going to watch a precursor of Mr. Bean in more ways than one - as I did, knowing a little bit about this movie, but not a lot - you may find yourself left wanting.

Yeah, I know it feels like I spend every one of my attempts to watch, for the first time, a classic movie by ragging on it, but I do feel that Mr. Hulot's Holiday is a movie worth watching, one that I will gladly watch again. Even more, I'd like to see the character of Mr. Hulot in films such as 1967's Playtime. There's something oddly inexplicable about Mr. Hulot's Holiday that seems to require repeat viewing. This is obviously not a complicated and complex film with heady plot threads, but when all of the people who were staying at the villa, Hulot included, get ready to leave and start waving goodbye to each other, you feel like you're going to miss these people. In a way (not a bad one), I felt like I'd spent an entire vacation with Mr. Hulot and company. I can't say I laughed out loud much, though; this is the kind of movie that you smile at, sometimes only on the inside, instead of guffaw or chuckle at.

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