“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.
vacation
“What are you going to do with the rest of your life? Sit on the shore and watch?”Last Summer (Frank Perry, 1969)
Mar
25
Walk In The Sand Day
One of the boys striking a threatening pose with a stick aimed at Sandy (Barbara Hershey aka Barbara Seagull). In the foreground a brooding Rhoda (the fantastic Catherine Burns). DPs: Enrique Bravo & Gerald Hirschfeld.
During a #summer #vacation on #FireIsland, two young men come across Sandy, an attractive young woman with an injured #seagull. While nursing the bird back to life, the relationship between the three deepens. A second girl, the much younger Rhoda (the breathtaking Catherine Burns) is taken in by the trio.
– Sandy
Set almost entirely on a sunny #beach, Frank Perry's Last Summer may be one of the most claustrophobic films you'll ever watch.