“Mr. Hulot is off for a week by the sea. Take a seat behind his camera, and you can spend it with him. Don't look for a plot, for a holiday is meant purely for fun, and if you look for it, you will find more fun in ordinary life than in fiction.” Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot [Monsieur Hulot's Holiday] (Jacques Tati, 1953)
Jul
7
Mr Hulot's view from his hotel room. DPs: Jacques Mercanton & Jean Mousselle.
A film with people at, or taking place in, a hotel*
– opening lines
Located in the real-world Hôtel de la Plage in Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, Mr Hulot lovingly bumbles his way into your heart.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
slapstick
“Bonsoir. Je m'appelle Rosalie!” Rosalie et son phonographe [Rosalie and Her Phonograph] (Romeo Bosetti, 1911)
Mar
28
Something-on-a-Stick Day
Rosalie (Sarah Duhamel) dances to her new phonograph. Duhamel makes eye contact with the viewer throughout the film, and even formally introduces herself during the intro.
A laugh out loud scene for Something on a Stick Day (USA)
Rosalie (the wonderful Sarah Duhamel) buys herself a phonograph and is delighted by the wonders it brings. Quick, the whole household should know!
Not only the obvious moments (no spoilers here), but the small, seemingly improvised bits is what makes Rosalie stand out above American productions of the time – with the exception of Roscoe Arbuckle's; his water bucket pun in His Wife's Mistakes (1916) still has me in stitches.
Duhamel makes great use of her physique, and doesn't shy away from looking inelegant, boorish even. Her hips are for pushing things and men out of her way, and her mighty paws easily toss any unwieldy piece of furniture out of the window.
Like Rosalie's irresistible gusto and her delightful ditties, the combination of Duhamel's physical comedy and (former #vaudeville-ian) Bosetti's Italian-flavoured slapstick, plus some of the best stop-motion trickery I've ever seen, is simply magical.
“… as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”Egged On (Charles R. Bowers, Harold L. Muller + Ted Sears, 1926)
Jan
17
inventions
Charley working his Rube Goldberger-esque egg-rubberizing contraption.
An invention for Benjamin Franklin's birthday. Inventor Charley (Charles R. Bowers) comes up with an ingenious method to make eggs break-proof for transport by rubberizing them.
– Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography
Bowers was an almost-forgotten silent era comedian, filmmaker, and animator. In more recent years, his groundbreaking stop-motion comedy has found a new, well-deserved, interest.
His Wife's Mistakes (Roscoe Arbuckle, 1916)
Aug
4
National Water Balloon Day
Janitor Roscoe uses the comedy staple seltzer bottle to fill a balloon with some spritz!
The great Roscoe Arbuckle just can't help himself while at the wonderfully hedonistic Oriental Café in this delightful short slapstick.
“I'm trying to teach you to run it – not wreck it!” Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner + Buster Keaton, 1928)
Mar
23
National Near Miss Day
A production photo showing the moment the façade crashing down towards Keaton. The photographer is standing to the right of Keaton at a very safe distance. The thickness of the wall is clearly, frightfully, visible. Even with the open window moving towards him, this blink-and-you-miss-it shot cannot guarantee a happy ending for Keaton or his movie persona William Canfield Jr. DPs: Bert Haines & Devereaux Jennings.
In Steamboat Bill, Jr., former vaudevillian Keaton narrowly escapes the façade of a house crashing down around him.
– William 'Steamboat Bill' Canfield
Both the man and the stunt lived on, probably most famously in Keaton aficionado #JackieChan's Project A Part II (HK, 1987).
Despite all the well-meant tributes, none of the later stunts are as nail biting as the pre-OSHA original.