The movie Mon Oncle by Jacques Tati attempted to draw parallels between traditional France and its modernized counterpart, showing that the latest domestic gadgets might not always be considered a positive invention. The movie director’s ambition was to critique the idea of owning objects and being obsessed with various technologies (GetIntoThis 2015). Even though the main character from traditional France keeps fighting against innovation rather aggressively, he cannot win. This is an ultimate depiction of how people could try opposing the flow of technological advancement to no avail. The movie is visually pleasing in terms of depicting all of the issues that modernized France could experience.
On the other hand, Jacques Tati masterfully utilizes the hyperbolic portrayal of culture and urban landscape in order to highlight the incredible degree to which modernism altered human lives. Even the public roads are presented as an overly totalitarian element of society since traffic jams do not exist, and every driver thoroughly respects the traffic rules (Spohrer 2010). This visual constancy quickly becomes disturbing because it shows how technology made our lives gloomier and much more mechanically repetitive. Hence, Mon Oncle can serve as a hint at the fact that modernized France lost its spontaneity and chose repetitive actions over lively experiences.
Ultimately, Tati’s attitude toward capitalist consumer societies can be viewed through the prism of his outlook on the economic systems and the environment in general. The director’s primary intention was to depict traditional France as a much more pleasing place to live (Spohrer 2010). As for modern France in Mon Oncle, Tati portrayed it as a degraded community that only followed a certain order on a daily basis. The movie suggests that practices and values of spontaneity and neighborly interaction have to be preserved instead of consumerism and addiction to technology.
References
GetIntoThis. 2015. “Jacques Tati – Chaos and Modernity in Mon Oncle and Playtime.” Web.
Spohrer, Jennifer. “Consumption and the Construction of Community in Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle.” disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory, vol. 19, no. 1 (2010): 61-72.