Jacques Tati must rank with Keaton and Chaplin as one of the greatest actor-directors of all screen comedy. No one who has seen M. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, Playtime or, more recently, Traffic, could ever forget his extraordinary creation, M. Hulot - that lanky, bouncing figure with pipe, hat, mac and brolly, scattering chaos wherever he goes, a lord of misrule.

This film is the first full-length study of Tati and his work. In it he returns, with Gavin Millar, to the little seaside town in Brittany where 25 years ago, M. Hulot took his holidays.