Rent My Uncle (1958)

The Fish Out of Water Feature - My Uncle review by griggs

Tati’s warmest film, and possibly his most disarming. Less grand than Playtime — no labyrinthine glass towers here — but far more interested in the people stuck with modernity’s gadgets than in the systems themselves. I found that easier to love than I expected.

The Arpel house remains a spectacular joke: every surface designed to impress visitors, nothing designed for actual living. The fish fountain alone deserves its own plaque. It’s cinema’s great passive-aggressive status symbol, switched on only when someone worth impressing walks up the drive.

Hulot wanders through all of this as a man too stubbornly human to perform efficiency. His relationship with his nephew gives the whole thing an emotional centre — warmth that Playtime rarely stops for.

Some gags feel familiar if you’ve arrived via the later films, though the execution is so precise they still land. The old Paris neighbourhood feels lived in; the Arpel suburb feels staged for inspection. Tati trusts the contrast to do the work.

Smaller and warmer than Playtime, and perhaps the more loveable film because of it. Progress arrives looking very pleased with itself; happiness quietly leaves by the back door.