Jacques Tati was born a little too late for the era of silent films, but he reinvented a version of them when he created the iconic character of Monsieur Hulot in the mid-1950s. There is room for debate as to which of the four Hulot films is the best; but this, the second, best defines the character: fully at home in his own world, hopelessly out of place in the chic, automated modern world which his relatives have taken to. But with misplaced confidence, they believe they can convert him to their way of life.