It is not a comedy of gags or funny lines (the only kinds of comedy left in Hollywood); here tragedy and comedy go together, enriching each other, contrasting and balancing between laughter and tears.

Tati comments directly on the changes in French society, drawing up little sketches of people forcing themselves into dehumanizing, uncomfortable positions.

It’s clear which monde Tati prefers, something all the more explicit in the American print, in which the “cultured” folks speak scrupulously controlled English and the old-worlders talk ebullient French.

[Jacques] Tati’s style is effortless as he conducts a complex comic symphonies of sight gags with elegant ease and his gangly performance is deceptively deft and graceful.