0617 saetae v final history thesis mon oncle copy

Beauty in the Mon Oncle, a film by Jacques Tati, 1958

Research in the artistic, social and cultural influences in modern times from the 1950s to 1960s

Veerasu Sae-Tae 4511727 Mentor: Prof. Everhard Korthals-Altes

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Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Part 0 Historical Background: Post-war Art in Mid-20th century .................................................................................................... 4 Jacques Tati .................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Mon Oncle, 1958 ......................................................................................................................................................................10

Part 1 Analysing Scene I: A Modern Man‘s House .........................................................................................................................13 Analysing Scene II: Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?...................................17 Analysing Scene III: Mass Culture Object ............................................................................................................................24

Part 2 Conclusion: What is the Sublime Beauty of the Future Modern Life? .............................................................................26 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................................................................28 Annotated Bibliography ...........................................................................................................................................................29 List of figures .............................................................................................................................................................................32

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Abstract Perhaps, films are the most efficient and reflective lens that help us look back at the essence of society and more specifically architecture’s collective history and memory. In films, we can observe many cultural aspects that help inform our opinions about what architecture is and what it might be, of their set designs, surroundings, architecture, characters, dress code, music, story plots and their cinematographic techniques.

These cultural lenses offer insightful nuggets in getting at which societal values can be extracted from historical and theoretical studies of how architecture has evolved. Particularly, one of the most successful films by Jacques Tati is Mon Oncle in 1958. It is a story about Monsieur Hulot and his holiday visit to his nephew and sister who is married to a wealthy plastic factory tycoon, during the post-war French society.

They live in an ultra-modern house, with a modern garden with a fish-shaped fountain at the centre of their yard, where everything is perfectly controlled. The film illustrates how uncomfortable, and awkward Mr Hulot was with this modernised and standardised lifestyle. The film suggests that there is an absence of personality in the era’s predominant scientific ways of living. I believe that an industrialisation and globalisation, which were booming in the America of the mid-twentieth century, had influenced the French and Europe society and their built environments. American modern advertisements and Pop Art particularly in the imagery and depiction of advertisements and automobile were lenses that could help architecture historians to study the past and to answer the question of what constitutes the notion of a modern life.

The goal towards analysing this film and modern art is to investigate a relationship between modern society, film, and arts. I believe arts such as movies, paintings, advertisements and other mediums that may have contributed to the image making discourse could have an impact on the norms of society and thus also benefit to architectural studies. Particularly, a link between the Mon Oncle and the modern influences, Pop art and advertisement in the 1950s to 1960s, clearly had impacts on French society at the time. It as can be seen in many of mass culture products used in the film, such as a vehicle, cooking machine, razor, cigarette, and so forth. The relationship associated with these objects was to express and promote the social status of being civilised and modern.

Ultimately, this research aims to find the link between the old and the new urban living condition, where we are driven by mass culture, trend, advertisement, and globalisation. How can we be more creative and happier? I am trying to investigate aspects of the film, in the hope to find a connection to architecture and design profession. The study of the social context in the film suggested us not to design in a complete notion of universality at the risk of over-sanitizing human’s emotions and nuances. As illustrated in the film our scientific way of living in the modern condition reduces the possibility of social interaction within the family as well as the neighbourhood scale. It might be true for most architects who end to design based on functionalities and economics point of views while neglecting the spiritual aspect of living. Learning from the comedy film will allow us to rethink our design methodology should architecture be more than a machine for living? Should it be considered as an art that affects our senses and gives impressions to the dwellers?

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Historical Background: Post-war Art in Mid-20th century Warfare has significantly affected the transition of the society, architecture and art of the mid-twentieth century. Since the 1930s, big part of the art world has been directed towards the modernism movement with the notion of reduction and abstraction, namely, Cubism, Constructivism, De Stijl and Abstract Expressionism. Characteristic of this period is the language of fragmentation, traumatization, death, and the depression of the war. The enormous painting (figure1), Number I, by Jackson Pollock, an American postwar artist, in 1948 would be a suitable illustration of art in the post-war era. His technique of dripping colours creates a continuous network of lines and illusion of depth and movement. This abstract painting leaves spaces for the audiences to fill in their interpretations. As many would associate his individual expression with the effect of the war, the artist claimed the opposite.

When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, 1 etc. because the painting has a life of its own.

However, these experimental movements were continuously being developed in different parts of the world.

Until the end of World War II in 1945, the major characteristic of artworks including painting, sculpture, and architecture has shifted towards internationalism due to the migration of artists, architects and scientists across Europe and America during and after the war period. At that time, the world started to communicate so rapidly; the national boundaries became insignificant in the world of art and architecture. The internationalism brought many artists together from different professions and nationalities. For instance, the Independent Group was formed at the ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, from 1952 to 1955.

The group consisted of different professions: artist, architect, critic, designer, sculptor, writer, and photographer. Among the artists, Richard Hamilton, the father of British Pop, was one of the leading ones.

The group explored and introduced mass culture into the discussion of high art. They are the pioneers who curated ground-breaking art exhibitions including the Parallel of Life and Art in 1953, Man, Machine and Motion in 1955, and This is Tomorrow – and exhibition held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1956 – which featured the well-known collage of Richard Hamilton, Just What Is it that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? A collage that illustrated the lifestyle of 20th-century couple apartment room, furnished with many popular and mass-produced objects.

The important point about Hamilton’s and subsequent pop artists’, approach to popular culture or mass media is that their purpose is not satirical or in any way antagonistic. They are not expressionists … and the social realists of the 1930s who were attacking the ugliness and inequalities of urban civilisation. In simple term, they are looking at the world in which we live, the great city and examining the objects and images that surround us with an intensity and penetration which 2 frequently make us conscious of them for the first time.

Indeed, this marked the big leap of twentieth-century art that breaks away from the Abstract Expressionism and forms a new direction that returned to everyday objects, from 1960 onwards. The movement started with the notion that objects, merchandised products, and other popular things could be defined as art objects. It challenged the definition of art which in the past was strictly defined in five media: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry. Similarly, in painting, a painter would paint what he saw around him; therefore, a glass bottle of Coca-Cola in a supermarket could also be an object of art. Meanwhile, in Europe, 1

Lynton, 1980, p.206

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Arnason, 1977, p.614

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the movement of Nouveau Réalisme or New Realism had manifested from American and French movement 3 promoted by Pierre Restany in 1960. The movement resembled the concept of Pop-art in the way that it used everyday materials to assemble the artworks. However, the movement was towards more into the three-dimensional sculpture of that of the Dada movement. It “involves the accumulation of objects from two-dimensional cubists papers and photographic montages, through every sort of dada and surrealist 4 objects, to junk sculpture, and on to complete the room environment” Even though both movements, the New Realism and Pop Art, manifested almost at the same time and evolved from the ideology of quotidian industrial objects, Pop art is different from the New Realism in that the content in the Pop art had double meaning and associated with the origin of the contents. “Pop art is neither abstract nor realistic; tough it has contacts in both directions. The core of pop art is at neither frontier, it is essential, an art about sign and 5 systems” The source of pop art comes from popular culture, which already imbued with a double meaning that the public has associated with it. For instance, an exhibition of 32 paintings of Campbell’s soup cans in 1962 by Andy Warhol, an American Pop art artist (figure 2). In this case, the soup communicates meaning that associated with it, such as the brand identity, the flavour, and the production process. Thus, the original sign of soup can have a meaning related to the artwork. Warhol‘s painting raised the public attention and curiosity of what was his intention on the art piece; whether it was a joke or it was a criticise the American standardisation and mass production in food production. However, as Warhol responded “who cares what the soup or the can or Campbell’s means to me? The important thing is what each one of you thinks… I’ve 6 already made my statement.”

Art Movement and Mon Oncle 7 Mon Oncle, the film by Jacques Tati was scripted in 1955 and shot between 1956 and 1957. It was during

the period when modernism was at its peak. The influence of American standardisation, conformity, and mass production in food production and building materials had affected the post-war French society.

Undoubtedly, the film Mon Oncle derived from on Tati’s observation of the changing world. Furthermore, surely his visits to the America had greatly inspired him as he remarked that “the city where I feel closest to what is happening in the world is New York, I’ve already got ideas, there (he points to his forehead), it’s an 8 American scenario which could happen anywhere else.” The American consumerism provoked by mass media and advertisement affected the way we live individually no matter where we are; standardisation consumes us in the age of advertising Our choices in everyday products reflect brand values and social status. This is similar to Pop art's ideology that attempts to raise awareness of people to rethink about mundane consumer goods and our relationship with them. Hence, we can consider Jacques Tati as a Pop art artist as Richard Hamilton or Andy Warhol, that used film as his canvas to depict the essence of cultural and social tectonics. Likewise, Pop artists did not criticise the ugliness of modernity, Tati’s film, Mon Oncle, narrated through the beauty of modern interventions.

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Arnason, 1977, p.603 Ibid, p.603 Alloway, 1974, p.7 Bourdon, 1989, p.99 Bellos, 1999, p.212 Ibid, p.314

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Figure 1: Jackson Pollock: Number I. 1948. Oil on canvas, 68x88 in.

Figure 2: Campbell’s Soup Cans. 1961-62. Acrylic on canvas, 32 panels, each 20x16 in.

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Jacques Tati Jacques Tati was an inspiring artist, film director, scriptwriter, actor, and producer of the twentieth century.

He was born in 1907 in Le Pecq, France. Despite his grandparent’s Russian family name, Tatischeff, he defined himself as a French citizen. He was a mix of Russian and French from his father side and a combination of Dutch and Italian from his mother side, Marcelle Claire van Hoof. Clarie’s father owned an antique picture frame shop in central Paris; the shop supplied the frame to museums, collectors, and artists.

The young Jacques Tati acquired his first work experience in this shop, where he was trained to be a skilled picture framer. Perhaps, years of training in picture framing could intuitively train him to be familiar with a view-finding technique in the filming industry. As a matter of fact, many of Tati‘s early life experience and his background had a significant influence on his years of achievement.

One of Tati‘s natural talents was his imitation skill. He was a real observant of the ordinary events. His innate skill of improvisation led him to perform in many well-known places of that time, such as the gala dinners after sports matches, hotels, casinos, musical halls, and theatres. Tati developed his miming skill by imitating characters in different situations. For example; he acted as the drunk trying to get back to the door, or mimed as an eccentric train driver. As Tati noted that his first principle of the type of comedy “lies not in the 9 action of the comedian, but in the comedian’s ability to reveal the comic dimension of others” With his talents, Tati went on to pursue his career in live mime performance at music halls and several sport aftermatch parties. His performance was noticed by Max Trebor, the theatre director at Theatre Michel in 1935.

At this point, he had enlarged his audience circle; it was a great leap in his career ladder. Following his success at Theatre Michel, he went to perform in London, featured in a TV program at A.B.C in Paris with two shows a day, and performed in various luxurious places such as Lido in Paris and Scala in Berlin. Besides, in those shows, Tati has invented his new style of mime through sports impression. After the World War I, sports became an extraordinary social and cultural trend in the post-war period. The trend started with the Olympic movement, which was established in 1898, to unite all the nations as well as to improve the health of people. Tati was the first entertainer who brought sports into his live silent performance in 1936. He mimed and imitated many genres of sports, such as a football goalkeeper, a tennis player, a boxer, a cyclist, and a horse rider. His invention derived from his skill of observation that turned ordinary and banal matters into a comedy of modern life. Sports, in this case, is a universal language that is shared by the different audiences; it was a genius move in silent performance. In parallel to his performance in music hall, Tati was still in pursuit of becoming an actor; he featured in several short films namely, Soigne ton gauche in 1936 (Work on Your Left) and L’ Ecole des Facteurs (The School of The Postmen) in 1945.

The outbreak of World War II had set a pause to his rising career. Tati did not mention many details of his warfare experiences. “In his autobiographical interviews, Tati described his wartime stint in Berlin as intolerable: he could not bear trying to make Nazi officers laugh. So he took leave from his engagement and 10 ran away” After the war, it was the second start in his career as he was searching for a more stable job from a travelling performer to a mature career in film industry. With his reputation for sports imitation skill, he was recommended by Marcel Carné and eventually got in touch with Fred Orain, a director who had a 11 background from electrical engineer and worked as a sound specialist in Paramount studios. Together they set up a Cady Films production company, one of their goals was to seek a new kind of comedy film. Tati together with Orain worked on the short film: L’ Ecole des Facteurs (The School of The Postmen). In this movie, Tati worked as an actor and a scriptwriter. The film influenced Tati in developing the cycling postman 9

Bellos, 1999, p.26

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Ibid, p.85-86 Ibid, p.92

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character in his first scripted and directed the film, Jour de Fête (The Big Day) in 1949. Both films illustrated a transition of post delivery system in the modern world, where the pace of life was becoming faster, from cycling delivery mail to airmail service and eventually worldwide delivery. At this point onward, Tati found his strength in his style of comedy, which was different from those of his contemporary role model, Charlie Chaplin. The similarity of the two was that they portrayed themselves as a clumsy clown with much humour, who did not fit in their environment. Nevertheless, what makes Tati’s film different was the context setting.

For Tati, his film is not situated in the modern setting where the modernization was penetrating into the old part of the city, but at the heart of the rural area. In Tati’s films, one could observe the trace of history and the essence of the place. As Michel Chion, a movie critic remarked: To create a universe cinematographically, you must not only create your fauna but also the planet where that fauna will grow. You must regulate the amount of oxygen in the air and the cycle of the 12 ocean tides. This, Tati managed fully.

Monsieur Hulot As a filmmaker and an actor, Tait’s greatest creation was his fictional character Monsieur Hulot. The character was a leading role in a series of Tati’s four well-known films namely, Les Vacances de M. Hulot (Mr. Hulot's Holiday) in 1953, Mon Oncle (My Uncle) in 1958, Playtime in 1967, and Traffic in 1971.

Monsieur Hulot is a tall, middle-aged man; he is always well-dressed. He wears a suit and overcoat with trousers and striped socks. He always has a pipe in his mouth, hat on his head and umbrella in his arm.

Hulot has his iconic walking gesture that made him a very expressive as a silent character. Through his behaviour, movement and gesture, it is obvious to tell that Hulot is a playful and talkative character.

Moreover, Hulot is a complex character that Tati created from his observation of people around him. As Tati gave his answer to Studs Terkel in 1962 regarding the creation of Hulot: Well, from the observation of the people that you met in the street. People are surprised to see, maybe, a character like this. But, for myself, I am not, because I only took one of the Hulot on the street. And if you look in Chicago or New York, you may find that the man who sell the frigidaire or 13 an aspirator or machine. You will find a lot of much more Hulot than you imagine.

Indeed, Tati’s long practice of mime and imitation skill had become a part of Hulot‘s behaviour. Tati used stupidity as a comedy tool in the creation of M. Hulot. He is a character who does not fit and understand how things work. Especially, in Mon Oncle, when he is faced with the new modern world accessories. Through the character of Mousier Hulot, we could investigate the shift in culture and social behaviour of post-war French society. Therefore, we could regard Jacques Tati as a historian. His reflection in his films told the story of the mid-twentieth century when the world started to communicate. The American culture and products had flowed into France as well as the rest of the world. At the first glance, Tati‘s films may have deemed to be anti-modernism, but as the matter of fact, he was trying to suggest that we should embrace both the modernity and the traditional way of living. The union of the two worlds would guide us to live happier during the transition of culture and society. Likewise, Mr Hulot, at the end of Mon Oncle, always remains gentlemen and does not lose his personality.

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Chion, 1997, p.16 Tati, 1962, Tati interviewed with Studs Terkel in 1962

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Figure 3: A portrait of Jacque Tati as Hulot in Mon Oncle in front of his apartment in the old town.

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Mon Oncle, 1958

Figure 4: the Opening title of the Mon Oncle, from film credit plate on a construction plate with a background of modern modular construction system to the movie title on the old brick wall.

Mon Oncle was Tati’s third feature film released on the 10th of May in 1958.The screenwriting was finished in 1955; it took one year of production from 1956 to 1957. The film was written, directed, acted and produced

by Jacques Tati. It is one of his masterpieces; the film received well-known reputation both in the US and Europe. It was awarded the Oscar for the best foreign film in 1958. Behind its success, Mon Oncle has a wellwritten storyline that illustrates the atmosphere of the twentieth-century post-war French society and the film reveals Tati’s perfectionism in details of making and editing.

The Making “Tati considered himself as a craftsman but behaved like an artist. He disliked mass productions. He was not 14 scared of disappointing his spectator.” Tati was the type of filmmaker, who cared about every detail in his films, and each film he made was a step of an experiment towards perfection. Two fascinating aspects in the making of Mon Oncle are colour and sound. Mon Oncle is Tati’s first coloured film. The use of colour in the film industry was not something new in 1950 as many of American films were made in colour and at that time, there had not been France-made colour process yet. However, Tati did not produce a coloured film to compete with American film industry. He used colour only when it was necessary, as he did not want to distract the focus of the viewers from the gags or the relevant aspects of the films.For him, “colour was not part of what people see unless it has some function or meaning. We recall significant colours, but for the rest, 15 In Mon Oncle, the overall tone of the settings was in our memories are mostly monochrome” monochrome colours whereas the important aspects would be highlighted in colours. This method helps draw attentions of the audiences to the main focus of the film since Mon Oncle is a silent film with minimally character’s dialogues. Thus, the body language of the performers is essential to convey the story. Also, the grey colour of the city was used to represent Paris in the modernism era as Tati would like to express the tedious monolithic colour of the place, from the grey colour of cement houses, concrete office buildings and metal of machines in factories.

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Chion, 1997, p.8 Bellos, 1999, p.109

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Moreover, the sound is another powerful tool that Tati acquired and used in his film. In Mon Oncle, the sound is vital parts of Tati’s comedy. Like David Lynch, a well-known American film director, noted: If you turn the sound off for a Jacques Tati‘s movie, you would be losing so much, maybe half of the humour. The humour comes in with the sound. For Jacques Tati, every sound effect is an opportunity 16 for humour. He was the genius in finding or making these sounds that add so much to his world.

The sound effect in Mon Oncle synchronised the aesthetic of modern machinery age. Sound as one of the aspects of the modern world that most of the people neglected, and it is a part of everyday life. The fact that Tati spent hours modifying and remixing sound effects for the film undoubtedly gave so much aesthetic quality to Mon Oncle. Noticing that in the film, Tati minimised the dialogue between characters. This may have come from his background as a mime performer, for whom body language is enough to convey the message to the audience. As Tati mentioned, “the content of dialogue is not as important as you think. Don’t attribute so much importance to dialogue. I am adding it in just in case something of value were to come out 17 of the loudspeaker.” Besides, the English version of Mon Oncle is not just the same film with a different soundtrack; Tati took this opportunity to insert an additional concerning the nationalism in France. As after post-war France, it feared that English speakers would become overloaded. Tati “used English in exactly the way French culture feared English would be used, as the vehicle of distinction, superiority, and wealth”Tati added elements into his film only if it carried meanings; he always found some room to improve his film. For that he was truly a great artist who used film as his canvas.

Story Pilot Mon Oncle is a story of a bourgeois French family, the Arpel family. They live in an ultra-modern villa in a new suburb area of France, which is filled with unnecessary gadgets. The overall story is focused on the relationship within the family, especially between the child, Gérard, and his two father-figure models: a modern and busy businessman who is his biological father and a traditional figure of a childhood role model who is his playful uncle, Monsieur Hulot is a tall man who is single and jobless; he is a no one and does not belong to any social class. He is a misfit in the modern environment in both living and working condition. He lives in the old part of the city in a traditional apartment in front of a public square. Madame Arpel, who is Hulot‘s sister, tries to help him, by finding him a wife and offering him a job, at her husband’s plastic factory.

Both of the plans fail miserably. Consequently, Hulot turns this modern environment with cleanliness and order into a chaotic mess. However, at the end of the film, Monsieur Arpel, a business-like father finds his lost path of being a father and get closer to his son Gérard. The family bond is strengthened in modern society.

The story manifested with the juxtaposition between the old and the new world and it is challenging the idea of what is work? What considers as productive activities? What is crucial in life? Through humour and jokes, Tati questioned the current streamline culture, which was intriguing to the audience to question their ways of living, either in their personality towards the materialisation or the comfortability in modern mass production life. How do we position ourselves in the era of the popular culture?

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Clavel, 2008, Once upon a time, a documentary of the making of the Mon Oncle Chion, 1997, p.64

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Conclusion- Guide to Analytical part This third film of Tati contains an incredible amount of historical layers that could be investigated from three different perspectives. First, the set design of the Mon Oncle has traces of the architectural history of modernism period. The juxtaposition between Hulot’s traditional house in the old town and Arpel family concrete geometrical house gives a virtual demonstration of different living lifestyles in the shifting of society, from the old to the new. Furthermore, the interior and furniture inside the Arpel villa, illustrate the living condition under materialistic world of mass and popular culture. The film suggested that in this way of living, people would lose their individuality and personality. A house became a machine for living and a showroom for social agenda. Living under this condition would affect the relationship between the families and the level of comfortability and happiness in living. Moreover, the development of technology in broadcasting and television in post-war society brought us to the age of advertisement, when mass publicity has become a tool for the commercial purposes. Many of the commercial products in the film have revealed the effects of advertising and how it affects people's consumption behaviour. Indeed, in the twentieth century, the world started to export and import commercial products. In Mon Oncle, many foreign imported goods and culture have flowed into France. For example, automobile and cigarette would be perfect illustrations of commercial products that have a significant social impact. This is a perfect case study to understand the effect of massproduction and branding to the society of the post-war and even today. Ultimately, Mon Oncle is one of the classic films that contain rich amount of history to be interpreted.

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Analysing Scene I: A Modern Man‘s House

Figure 5: (Left) The exterior of Hulot’s suburban house, which located on the left of the top floor.

Figure 6: (Right) A view of the main square of Saint-Maur in front of Hulot’s house.

The design set in Mon Oncle was designed by Jacques Lagrange, in 1956. The sets are mainly situated in three main locations in Paris: an apartment in the old town was built in the main square of Saint-Maur, a plastic factory and a school, were constructed in Créteil, and a Villa Arpel in a new suburb area was assembled at the Studio de La Vitorine or Victorine Film Studio. The majority of the sequences were filmed at Villa Arpel and the square of the old town. The sets were deconstructed after the filming was complete. The architecture in the set design expressed the juxtaposition between different styles of living between the old and the new world. The comparison suggesting that modernization and standardisation affect how people live in the society and architecture become merely a machine for living, neglecting cultural and contextual aspects. It posted a crucial question, should architecture creates an impression, as a form of art that could affect our emotions and senses? Moreover, what could be design guidelines in achieving this beauty of architecture or should there be one?

In the film, an apartment in the old town is a three-story post-war building where the exterior of the building reveals many layers of renovations, a mix of different materials and traces of the history. The house represented the old world. It was a place where Mr Hulot was staying during his holiday visiting. Its exterior had a rich history associated with its appearance. The façade of this building became a very important aspect as the director chose not to reveal any interior atmosphere, the audience could only view all interactions through the void and apertures. The layers of renovated and extended parts could inform that the building had been adapted through time, according to the changes in its functions and needs of the users. This renovation and additional components were done in an informal way; this can be seen from the wooden extension in the middle of the courtyard to connect two sides of the floor together. This informal addition creates a labyrinth-like circulation, in the building, as in figure 5, Mr Hulot is descending as he was going up to his room on the top floor. Moreover, through this circulation is where the residents of this apartment interact with each other. Moreover, the building composed of mixed materials from the concrete wall, wooden window frame, to glass panels; this customization of different elements and colours makes the building very local and natural. Furthermore, the façade of the house could reveal the effects of the War, as of the building nor its surrounding buildings are clean or repainted. This faded old painted wall of the setting could indicate the economic situation and living condition of the working class in Paris at the time, revealing the characteristic of the post-war housing in Paris and its suburbs.

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Figure 7: (Left) The urban environment in front of Villa Arpel.

Figure 8: (Right) Monsieur Arpel stands in front of Villa Arpel in Mon Oncle On the contrary, at Villa Arpel, reveals an opposite atmospheric spatial quality. With the influence of the modern architecture in the mid-twentieth century, the house located in a new suburb residential area in a grid system where the wall separates each property. In figure 7, the city becomes automobile-oriented; the pedestrian becomes the minority. The sidewalk of outside the house is too narrow and not intended to walk.

Also, in the far background, we can see new development of modern towers are constructing, indicating that the city is transforming vertically towards the high-rise apartment building. Modern elements, grid and line, have eliminated possibilities of social interactions within the neighbourhood as compared to traditional housing. By trying to create a secure environment, a border of the concrete wall and steel fences have pulled up to demarcate the ownership. The meaning of this visuality of the boundary itself connotes separation and privacy; it is an architectural language that is affecting how the society should interact with each other.

Comparing to the open public square scene in figure 6, we can see that there are an alternate number of possibilities of events that could occur every day, and this randomness enhances social communication and unity.After the War, housing had become a major problem in many places in Europe. Architects and Engineers together came up with the modular construction system that allowed us to construct faster to meet the demands of the emergent needs. The design of Villa Arpel has influenced by the international style of the post-first war. Many resemble the style of the Villa Arpel to the design of Le Corbusier for Maison Jeanneret in 1923. However, it was not Lagrange’s intention. In general, the architecture style is going towards the abstraction, reduction of ornate and decorative elements. It is a two-story house with a simple geometry of boxes with the combination of dots and lines. The exterior of the villa is painted grey, highlighted in blue on three lines of the vertical façade elements on the left side. It is installed with two peculiar circular windows as if an eye of the robot. Furthermore, the appearance of the house reveals Lagrange’s personal perspective regarding modern architecture as Tati did not give specific details either for the appearance or the interior design as he gave only a request: “All that Tati calls for is a house that is pretentious, impeccably clean, and equipped with all the latest electrical labour-saving devices. He gave no other details of its appearance and internal 18 design, calling it a magnificent factory of cleanliness.”

Nevertheless, Lagrange as a set designer had to come up with a house that criticises modern architecture. He did so by using techniques of oversimplification and exaggeration as a tool for comedy.

The methods that he used to design were quite interesting in that somehow he had to act as an architect.

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Bellos, 1999, p.207

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Figure 9: Madame Arpel is welcoming her friend, and then she has given her a short tour of her new modern house.

“I made a collage if illustrations from architectural reviews, with scissors and paste. I took bits from here and bits from there – port – hole windows, silly pergolas, winding garden paths to make the plot seem larger … It is an architectural potpourri.” 19 Likewise, his method of designing using typology of architectural elements resembled of what some of the architects today practice design. This could be an interpretation of how he thought about modern architecture and how it was designed with no regard to contexts and surroundings, because of its modularity, it can be allocated and reallocated in any place and would not matter. Additionally, another important iconic aspect of Villa Arpel is its garden and courtyard. The modern garden itself is an abstract form of forest and nature. In Villa Arpel, the garden is divided into lines and geometries, creating a composition of grass, sand, stone, path walk, and water. In figure 8, we can see behind the house with a big natural tree that contrasts to this abstraction of these garden elements. A Garden in the modern suburb house is a notion of connecting people with nature. Certainly, the garden itself is a one of the important parts in the film. It serves an entrance for the house; the curvy path from the gate to the entrance creating a depth of field that makes the house seem larger, as the visitors have to follow along the path. Another crucial element at the centre of the garden is the water-spouting sea-bass fountain. It used as a signifier during many scenes whenever someone is ringing a doorbell; Arpel will turn on the fountain to create an impression to the distinguished visitors.

Moreover, sometimes she mistakenly turns on the fountain, to Hulot or her husband which she does not have to create an impression to. Tati intended this sequence to be a joke that could illustrate the social masking between social classes in modern society. For instance, in figure 9, when Arpel has a visitor, she will turn on the fountain; and then open the automated gate. It is an act of greeting; however, we can also see this attempt to present her house as being modern, in that the villa is very hi-tech and equipped with the latest technology. Above all, the body language and gesture in this particular sequence has absurdly oriented between the hand gesture and the facial orientation as they were moving along the curvy path. This was another gag that Tati deployed to show the modern robotic-like body gesture in the contemporary society.

All in all, architecture has significant impacts on the society; it affects how people commute and dwell and also shaping their personality and lifestyle. Modernism is one of the major architecture movements of the post-war period that abruptly changed the way people live and travel. The development of the automobile and modular construction makes it possible to construct suburban housing units. This allows one to live in a 19

Bellos, 1999, p.207

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larger house further away from the city centre. Also, cities have been subdivided into different zones; they became automobile-oriented cities. This can be seen in the Mon Oncle. The sense of distance among the various places, from the Arpel house in a residential suburb, the Hulot’s house in an old part of town to the Plastic Factory in the business industry area. In this film, we could already see the beginning of the transformation of spaces which has been influenced by modernism and International style. People have to spend more time travelling from places to places, as in the film the sense of distance appears with vehicles.

Moreover, the modernization and standardisation in suburb housing make us become more and more individualism. Fences and wall create boundaries separating different properties, and distant our social interaction. Whereas, in the square of Saint Maur where Hulot lives, there is a sense of belonging and relationship between the urban environment and dwellers, which is lacking in the modern housing units.

Modernism creates a universal language for a design that generalises the needs and functions of people assuming that everyone is all the same and neglecting human emotion and experience in space. In today's context where the needs of the people are changing towards more personalisation and customisation. To create a suitable design for today, the design principles should be more contextual based, more integrated to nature and back to the basic of human senses.

16

Analysing Scene II: Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

Figure 10: Madame Arpel is giving her neighbour a tour inside her ultra-modern house.

Le Corbusier‘s described a modern home as “a machine for living in. Baths, Sun, hot-water, cold-water, warmth at will, conservation of food, hygiene, beauty in the sense of good proportion. An armchair is a 20 machine for sitting in and so on“ In the same way, the Arpel family, perceives their house as a showroom for living, equipped with the latest modern accessories, gadgets and machines. As in figure 10, Madame Arpel gives her neighbour a tour through the house, showing her modern furniture. Perhaps, the happiness of the Arpel’s couple lies in the comfortability made by labour saving machines and gadgets. Jacques Tati and Jacques Lagrange’s gave their expression towards modernization and standardisation in Mon Oncle in a similar approach to Richard Hamilton, a British Pop art artist with his collage, Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? Both masterpieces were made during the mid-twentieth century of the post-war era. Mon Oncle was shot between 1956 and 1957 in Paris, and the collage was exhibited in 1956 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. They have illustrated the influences of modernization, massproduction, streamline household products, American culture, mass media and advertisement on living and consuming lifestyle of European post-war society. Through the analysis of both Tati’s film and Hamilton‘s collage, we could suggest the underlying fundamental of the post-war social norms in the age of industrial boom. Also, we could be able to understand the social and cultural tectonic caused by the modernization, industrialisation, and popular culture.

In Mon Oncle, Tati criticised many aspects of the modernity of life in Villa Arpel through comedy and humour such as the obsession with unnecessary gadgets, the scale of the standardised furniture, and the social roles between male and female. The film implies that there are certain behaviours and personalities lost in the modern way of living. Nevertheless, Tati was not against the modern architecture as he clarified in his interview that “it is Mr Arpel’s behaviour inside that space. If that same house were occupied by a young couple – the husband a painter and the wife a piano teacher – I do not think they’d have put in an S-shaped walkway or a fountain to turn on whenever guests arrived. They’d have had a simple lawn, a very appropriate solution. The architecture and the character are entirely separate I am concerned with people, not appearances.” The film could be seen as a parody of modernism in a way; however, these reflections through the Mon Oncle gave us an understanding of the past century, and hopefully could guide us as a design thinking tool for contemporary design and architecture.

20

Le & Etchells, 1931, p95

17

Figure 11: Madame Arpel is preparing a hygienic meal for Gérard; she is wearing a white dress with gloves in her hands; as Mousier Arpel is complaining about his son’s behaviour.

“The Arpel house in Mon Oncle is like a factory, garnished with noisy, push button machines

21

” The

accessories of modern life in Villa Arpel is one of Tati’s comedy gags that he used to exemplify a mode of living which was dominated by excessive and unnecessary machines and equipment, from the automated gate, a fish fountain to the Arpel modern kitchen. In figure 11, the scene depicts when Madame Arpel prepares a meal for her son. It depicts an over exaggerated situation similar to the dental care’s operation. It is important to realise that the mother wears a white dress, white shoes and white gloves as a uniform of a nurse and takes an egg out with tongs from the machine. Possibly, Tati wanted to express an idea of hygiene and cleanliness in the house as well as the food, which was one of the most important aspects of the modern era. Another aspect in Mon Oncle that Tati wanted to express was the sound from the machine and automobile in modern life make it hard for the couples to communicate inside the house, and even not realise the presence of each other.

Figure 12: (Left) Monsieur Arpel is sitting on the yellow rocking chair, talking to his business partner.

(Right) Arpel family has a meal with Hulot in his uncomfortable modern chair.

21

Chion, 1997, p.87

18

Furthermore, the scale had played a major role in modernization and mass-production. For Le Corbusier, his design was based on an ideal human measurement figure of the modular man. This measurement became the standardisation, an ideal proportion of a modern man. Many of the sequences in the film illustrated the situation where the standardised measurement was not suited to the proportion of people, resulting in uncomfortable furniture and many awkward situations. In figure 12, Monsieur Arpel sits on the yellow rocking chair talking to his business partner, noticing that the scale both of the chair, outdoor umbrella and table are much smaller than the size of Mr. Arpel’s body. Looking further at the gesture of Mousier Arpel, he sits on the chair with one leg on the ground, if he has lifted up both of his legs, the chair would turnover. It does not look uncomfortable at all. The modern interiorization and decoration are not aimed to achieve the comfortability in furniture design but rather associate with the status embedded in the objects, as a piece of art. The couple treats their furniture as sculptures in the museum where they should be placed at the exact location and should not be moved or interpreted in other ways.

Figure 13: Madame Arpel as a house-proud mum, performing her cleaning routine.

Moreover, role and status were one of the main characteristics of the modern era. The distinction of role and responsibility between male and female, husband and wife as well as mother and son. In Mon Oncle, Madame Arpel is an ideal wife who obsesses in order and control over her house; she takes care of her son and husband. As revealed in figure 13, as she is a house-proud wife who keeps dusting and polishing objects in her house. The film illustrates: Women reign over their home. In Mon Oncle, Madame Arpel the housewife sets the overall tone in the ultra-modern home; she makes all the decision; she opens the electric entrance door. Her 22 presence is felt everywhere in the villa as she walks, cooks, or vacuums Meanwhile, Monsieur Arpel is an owner of a factory, husband, and father; he was in charge of the monetary situation of the house as well as his company. He represented the strict control father who had no time for his son. The film reveals the effect of modernity towards the intimate family relationship between wife, husband, brother, mother, uncle and son.

Figure 14: Monsieur Arpel in different roles: as a husband, father, and businessman.

22

Chion, 1997, p.83

19

Figure 15: Richard Hamilton’s collage: Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different so appealing, 26 cm x 24.8 cm, 1956

20

From Tati to Hamilton The collage, Just what is it that makes today’s home so different so appealing? is one of the posters featured in This Is Tomorrow exhibition at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, from August to September 1956 The exhibition was a representation of the Independent Group towards their notion of art. As they regarded: “We reject the notion that ‘tomorrow' can be expressed through the presentation of rigid formal concepts. Tomorrow can only extend the range of the present body of visual experience. What is needed is not a definition of meaningful imagery but the development of our perceptive 23 potentialities to accept and utilise the continual enrichment of visual material. “ Eleven teams of young architect and artists were involved in curating the exhibition. Working on the collage, Just what is it . . ., were the architect John Voelcker and the Independent Group members, John Mchale and Richard Hamilton. Through many discussions and disagreements within the group, the final decision of the collage lied on Hamilton and his wife, Terry Hamilton contributing to the selection of the images. While Mchale supported Hamilton with his idea and collection of images and magazine cut-out, due to different approach and time limitation.

“According to Hamilton, the collage was produced in a single morning, after Hamilton had provided Terry and Magda with a list of the things that he wanted the collage to represent, and they retrieved them from the magazines available in the flat. Hamilton’s iconographic prescription shows the dual interest in science and popular culture that had marked the Independent Group: Man, Woman, Humanity, History, Food, Newspaper, Cinema, TV, Telephone, Comics (picture information), Words 24 (textual information), Tape recording (aural information), Cars, Domestic Appliances, Space.”

Figure 16: (Left) Advertisement for Hoover Constellation, Reproduced in Ladies’ Home Journal in 1955.

(Middle) Advertisement for Armour Star Ham, in 1949.

(Right) Photograph of Zabo Koszewski, Photograph by Bruce Bellas, Reproduced in Tomorrow’s Man in 1954 It is a remarkable piece of work that illustrated the living condition of a couple in a room of a modern apartment in Britain which fully furnished and decorated with modern mass culture products: a television, 23 24

Hamilton & Solomon, 1973, p.24 Stonard, 2007, p.613

21

tape recorder, newspaper, film poster, a Ford emblem, advertisement of a vacuum cleaner, comics and poster of a jazz singer. Many aspects of Richard Hamilton‘s collage coincidentally share similar perspective with Jacque Tati’s film, Mon Oncle. Hamilton’s work illustrates the living condition during the post-war age where American domestic appliances flowed into the individual household as Hamilton called it “white goods… washing machine, dishwasher, refrigerators – not simply as objects in themselves as designed 25 object, but also in the ways in which they were presented to the audience” Similarly to Tati’s point of view in Villa Arpel, where the house is over equipped with labour saving machines such as cooking appliance (figure 11), automate door (figure 9), self-driving vacuum(figure 13). Furthermore, Hamilton illustrated “the 26 relationship of woman and appliance is a fundamental theme of our culture” This can be seen in figure 16 (left), the advertisement of a female cleaning with a Hoover a vacuum cleaner. In the same way, that Tati created Madame Arpel as an ideal female icon who is in control of all the housework as well as all the equipment inside the house. Hence, revealing the concept of sexist where the male is superior to the female gender appeared during the mid-twentieth century. Noticing the champion of a body builder, Zabo Koszewski (the right in figure 16), at the centre of the collage, “’Adam’ according to Hamilton, alongside the 27 burlesque ‘Eve’ teetering on the sofa” Adam is presenting an ideal male figure that represents strength, power, and health.

Moreover, the collage (figure 17) is the scene when Hulot turns a strange green sofa in the Arpel house into a bed, while Monsieur Arpel complains about Hulot’s behaviour. Hulot turns the house into a chaotic mess; however, it is this very moment a sort of essence of living in a home appeared. Comparing to the room in Hamilton‘s collage, what is missing in the Arpel salon is the sense of personal preference on the decoration of the house, that they live in the space. There seems to have no personal touch to the original state of the architecture. The wall, ceiling, and floor are totally clean and clear. Whereas the couple in Hamilton’s collage, they live in their materialistic world, filled with their personal decorations such as the poster of a comic book, Young Romance, a Ford emblem, a can of ham, tape recorder and so on. Overall, both couples are driven by the popular culture and materialistic objects that could be investigated clearly in their reference of the mass culture objects, as many of those are American imported products. Hence, this demonstrates the European consuming behaviour during the post-war age. Certainly, the influence of commercial advertisement has affected the consuming behaviours of the public mass.

25 26 27

Stonard, 2007, p.609 Russell ,1969, p.73 Stonard, 2007, p 618

22

Figure 17: Self-made collage from a scene in Mon Oncle, revealing the Arpel’s materialistic world, computer-aided design, 2016

23

Analysing Scene III: Mass Culture Object

Figure 18: Street views in Mon Oncle, reveals cars as a major transportation mean.

Speed and mobility were one of a major characteristic that is shaping the mid twenty century. With the development of mass production in automobiles, the price of a vehicle became affordable; it had changed the way the city was oriented, road and highways were constructed, the people could live further away, it caused the booming of the oil industry, and yet it had polluted our environment. In post-war society, the happiness of living lied in the comfortability of life through machines. As Tati mentioned in his interview: “Everyone is working each morning to find how we can open a door faster and a window quicker, but very few people are working today to say. All right, but we must not take that too seriously because the gadget isn’t so important” 28 Similarly, people were finding ways to move from place to place faster. Everybody was driven by a sign on the street; the reduction of gear system in a vehicle made it possible for everyone to drive. There was no more a good or bad driver, as in figure 18, a street in Mon Oncle. Furthermore, advertisement and mass-media were a major influential tool in propagating the modern luxury objects in a mid-twentieth century. It created a public role model with mottos that anyone could achieve it and with this popular product, one's’ life would be happier. Modernity associated an object with signs and social status.

Figure 19: Arpel’s first luxury car - An Oldsmobile Super 88 in 1950, a production of General Motors, an American product.

In Mon Oncle, popular culture of American automobile had greatly influenced the Arpel family. In the film, Arpel first car, in figure 19, was an Oldsmobile Super 88, a production of General Motors, USA. Looking at two of its advertising poster in 1951, first in figure 20(left), the poster contains the rocket emblem similar to the one on the hood of the car as a symbol of speed. Also, in figure 20 (right), noticing that the poster illustrates a young couple travelling in a car with a slogan “Make a Date with the 88” It gives a visual impression associated with love, marriage, speed, compact, lightweight and luxury.

28

Tati, 1962, Tati interviewed with Studs Terkel in 1962

24

Figure 20: Advertisements for an Oldsmobile Super 88 in 1950 with a slogan “Make a Date with the “88.” ” Towards the end of the film, Monsieur Arpel offers his wife a new American saloon car as an anniversary gift.

It was a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air model. As in figure 21, observing from the advertisement of the car in 1956, despite its ridiculous colour – that Tati used to highlight the car from its surrounding – the advertisement revealed a happy couple with their son travelling together somewhere, probably for a holiday place with its slogan, Loves to go … and looks it. The visual impression of the poster and the ending of Mon Oncle had coincided here as a happy family. Moreover, noticing that both cars of the Arpel are American-made, as “American cars had a special status in 1950s France. …their size, their decoration features (fins, chrome) and 29 their huge fuel consumption made them inherently absurd.” Indeed, with unique appearance of the vehicle, the Arpel family would catch the attention of French metropolitans. In both, the collage of Richard Hamilton and Mon Oncle show an influx of imported American products into Europe, revealing the significant continental trading and exchanging. Also, the social status that associated with nationality and origin of products gives the social impression that set a trend and a norm for society.

Figure 21: (Left) a scene when Arpel is observing a Chevrolet Bel Air, 1956.

(Right) An advertisement for 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air with a slogan “Loves to go… and looks at it!”

29

Bellos, 1999, p.199

25

Conclusion: What is the Sublime Beauty of the Future Modern Life?

Jacques Tati should be considered not only as a filmmaker or an actor but also an artist, architect, and a historian. His film, Mon Oncle, captured so much the spirit and the essence of post-war age in architecture, interior, furniture, and product design. His perfectionism in details in filmmaking allows us to catch a glimpse of what society of mid-twentieth was like. Through comedy, Tati revealed adverse effects of modernity, living under materialistic world. He reminded us not to lose our personality and to enjoy the humour in life, both positive and negative aspects. “Tati justifies his position with reason and honesty. If he chooses to criticise 30 the modern world, at least he doesn’t do it through ugliness.” As he remarked: “concerning the Arpel’s house, people said that I am against the modern architecture. That is not true. It is Mr. Arpel’s behaviour inside that space. If that same house were occupied by a young couple – the husband a painter and the wife a piano teacher – I don’t think they’d have put in an S-shaped walkway or a fountain to turn on whenever guests arrived. They’d have had a simple lawn, a very appropriate solution. The architecture and the 31 character are entirely separate I am concerned with people, not appearances.”

Richard Hamilton‘s collage and Mon Oncle could be seen as artworks under the influence of modernism, mass production, consumerism, science, and popular culture. Hamilton was one of the very first artists who engaged in the art of everyday objects. He fully understood the social condition of the post-war era and how much American culture influenced society. Just what is it that makes today's home so different so appealing? “reflects the disquiet of its time, marked the end of Empire and the dawn of Nuclear Age. True to their story, Adam and Eve must soon leave this consumer paradise… In an Age of Boom, things sooner or later must go 32 pop.”

Today, in the age of fast information with the leap in wireless and cloud technology, perhaps we are still facing the similar nostalgia of those in Mon Oncle and Hamilton’s collage, living under the anxiety of materialistic world, equipped with even more gadgets. Our freedom of making choices in life is becoming very limited. Mass publicity in online platforms influenced our behaviours and desires. We are still living under the standardisation of today world. That is to say that the notion of Tai and Hamilton’s works, still applied in current contemporary life. Nevertheless, Mon Oncle reveals the charming disorder of the old world. Through the transition of modernism and industrialisation, many places had been transformed to create more space for housing and factories. Architecture style was directed towards the modernism of reduction and functionality. Mon Oncle expresses concern about this transition whether it is worth losing the old authenticity to gain the new value in modernity.

30 31 32

Chion, 1997, p.143 Clavel, 2008, Once upon a time documentary, footage of Jacques Tati’s interview in 1968.

Stonard, 2007, p 620

26

Figure 22: Hulot takes his nephew out into the city, where he is enjoying the moment of being a kid.

27

Bibliography 1. Alloway, L. (1974). American pop art. New York,: Macmillan.

2. Arnason, H. H. (1977). History of modern art : painting, sculpture, architecture (2d ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.New York: Prentice-Hall ;Abrams.

3. Bellos, D. (1999). Jacques Tati : his life and art. London: Harvill.

4. Bourdon, D. (1989). Warhol. New York: Abrams.

5. Chion, M. (1997). The films of Jacques Tati. Toronto: Guernica.

6. Clavel, C. (Director), & Genin, M., & July, S. J. (Producers). (2008). Once Upon a Time . . . Mon Oncle [Motion picture on DVD]. France: Ina.an hour-long documentary from 2008 on the making of the film. interviewees including David Lynch, Jean Nouvel and others.

7. Cooke, R. (2010). Richard Hamilton | Interview. Retrieved June 12, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/14/richard-hamilton-interview-serpentine-cooke 8. Hamilton, R., O'Brien, S., Larner, M., & Serpentine Gallery. (2010). Richard Hamilton : modern moral matters.

London: Serpentine Gallery ; Koenig Books.

9. Hamilton, R., & Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. (1973). Richard Hamilton. New York,: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

10. Le, C., & Etchells, F. (1931). Towards a new architecture. London,: J. Rodker.

11. Lynton, N. (1980). The story of modern art. Oxford: Phaidon.

12. Massey, A. (1990). The Independent Group. London, ICA. The Burlington Magazine, 132(1045), 284-285.

13. Russell, J., Gablik, S., Arts Council of Great Britain., & Hayward Gallery. (1969). Pop art redefined. New York,: Praeger.

14. Tati, J. (Director), Tati, J. (Producer), & Tati, J., Lagrange, J., & L'Hôte, J. (Writers). (1958). Mon Oncle, (My Uncle) [Motion picture on DVD]. France: Gaumont (France).120 minutes (French) 15. Tati, J. (1962, November). Jacques Tati talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT ; 1962/11 [Interview by S. Terkel].

In Pop Up Archive. The Chicago History Museum: WFMT Radio Network. 1 sound tape reel (ca. 32 min.) https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/938/items/12455 16. Stonard, J. (2007, September). Pop in the Age of Boom: Richard Hamilton’s Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? The Burlington Magazine, 149(1254), 607-620.

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Annotated Bibliography 1.Alloway, L. (1974). American pop art. New York, Macmillan.

Lawrence Alloway was a leading member of the Independent Group. The group was one of the pioneers who contributed to the definition of pop art. They introduced mass culture into debates of high art. The book discusses the notion of “as found”, aesthetic of ordinary objects. The author introduced the definition of Pop Art in great details. He described the emergence of pop-art from popular culture. Also, Lawrence discussed how Pop art artists select their art contents which were associated with signs. He demonstrated five of Pop Art artists’ works such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol in this book.

2.Arnason, H. H. (1977). History of modern art: painting, sculpture, architecture (2d ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.New York: Prentice-Hall; Abrams.  Particular in Chapter Twenty-Four: New Directions in the 1960s and 1970s (page 603 - 615) It is a significant book for understanding the development of the history of modern art from the Nineteenth century onward, in three different mediums: painting, sculpture and architecture. In my research, I want to focus on the development of pre-war and post-war art, from Abstract Expressionism to Pop art. The author gave a brief introduction to the genesis of art from an everyday object in the 1960s and 1970s. For instance, the developments of Nouveau Realism in France and Pop art in England. The author described the origin of Pop-art associated with the Independent Group including the critic, Lawrence Alloway and Richard Hamilton.

He explained how Hamilton and other artists contributed to the establishment of Pop Art vocabularies.

3. Bellos, D. (1999). Jacques Tati: his life and art. London: Harvill.  Especially in Chapter 28-29, page 201 to 212.

It is a very crucial book that serves as both the autobiography and film analysis of Jacques Tati. David Bellos provided a great insightful to Tati’s history, personality and thoughts which he divided Tati’s life into four parts: Years of Practice 1907-1946, Year of achievement, 1946-1960, Playtime, 1960-1970 and Confusion 1970-1982.In part one, Bellos provided so many historical backgrounds of Tati. He described how Tati started his career as a mime performer and how this benefit him in his later career as an actor and a filmmaker. In part Two, he gave a great history of cinematic industry in France and how the influence of foreign films affected France film industry at the time. As in this research analysed Tati’s third film Mon Oncle in 1958, I found that chapter twenty-eight and nine had greatly contributed to the motives behind the making of the Mon Oncle. The author provided the information behind the inspiration of the film and details of its set design and character development. Moreover, the book gave an extraordinarily details and analysis of Tati’s film from rare and well-sourced references from texts, magazines articles, documentaries and interviews.

4. Chion, M. (1997). The films of Jacques Tati. Toronto: Guernica.

This book was originally published in French and translated into English by Antonio D’ Alfonso. The author Michel Chion is a composer and filmmaker, he is interested in the relationship between audio-visual in films.

The author analysed six of Tati ‘s films in his points of views revealing so many interesting remarks on Tati’s cinematic world. In this book, we can see the development in a Tati’s famous character, Mr Hulot throughout the six films.

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5. Clavel, C. (Director), & Genin, M., & July, S. J. (Producers). (2008). Once Upon a Time . . . Mon Oncle [Motion picture on DVD]. France: Ina.an hour-long documentary from 2008 on the making of the film. Interviewees including David Lynch, Jean Nouvel and others.

The documentary invited a famous artist, critic, filmmaker and architect to discuss on Tati ‘s film, Mon Oncle, such as David Lynch and Jean Nouvel. It is a one-hour long documentary. It includes many interest points of the films, especially the opinions of what the interviewees reflection of the Mon Oncle. The documentary also included many of Jacques Tati interviews on the television show, dated back in 1962 regard his thoughts of the film and characters.

6. Cooke, R. (2010). Richard Hamilton | Interview. Retrieved June 12, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/14/richard-hamilton-interview-serpentine-cooke The article describes an insightful interview with Richard Hamilton by Rachel Cooke, the author. It discusses Hamilton’s invention of the term of pop art and his collage, Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

7. Hamilton, R., O'Brien, S., Larner, M., & Serpentine Gallery. (2010). Richard Hamilton: Modern Moral Matters.

London: Serpentine Gallery; Koenig Books.

The book is a catalogue of the exhibition: Richard Hamilton: Modern Moral Matters, at the Serpentine Gallery. It gives an overview of Richard Hamilton’s works. Particular in page 12, the book gave a description towards the motive behind, the collage, Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

8. Hamilton, R., & Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. (1973). Richard Hamilton. New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

The book provides an information behinds. This is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in 1956. It contains a collection of Richard Hamilton’s works at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum.

9. Lynton, N. (1980). The story of modern art. Oxford: Phaidon.

Book briefly introduces us to each period of modern art. In my research, the book demonstrates the great contrast between the art movement after the War period. Particularly, Jackson Pollock with his painting No.1 in 1948 on page 229 and the collage by Richard Hamilton on page 286. The book reveals the response of public towards the collage of Hamilton.

10. Massey, A. (1990). The Independent Group. London, ICA. The Burlington Magazine, 132(1045), 284-285.

The article of Anne Massey shows an introduction to the establishment of the Independent Group, involved many professions: artist, architect, critic, writer, photographer and designer.

30

11. Russell, J., Gablik, S., Arts Council of Great Britain., & Hayward Gallery. (1969). Pop art redefined. New York,: Praeger.

This publication describes the notion of Pop-art and illustrates statements from many artists. Richard Hamilton was featured in one of the chapters, titled An exposition of $he. This work could be compared to his collage, Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? In 1958, in the way that it reveal so many resemble the notion of women and modern household appliance.

12. Tati, J. (1962, November). Jacques Tati talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT ; 1962/11 [Interview by S. Terkel].

In Pop Up Archive. The Chicago History Museum: WFMT Radio Network. 1 sound tape reel (ca. 32 min.) https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/938/items/12455 The interview of Jacques Tati at his Spectra Films studio in 1962 by Terkel Studs. An American famous author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. The interview is about two of Tati’s films: Mr Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle. It reveals so much detail of what Tati thought about the movies and how he developed Hulot’s character in his films. Tati also answered questions regard his intention behind the making of Mon Oncle.

11. Stonard, J. (2007, September). Pop in the Age of Boom: Richard Hamilton’s Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? The Burlington Magazine, 149(1254), 607-620.

The article explains the ideology of the Independent Group, and reveal its plan for the exhibition: This is Tomorrow in 1956. It clearly explains the teams who involved in the exhibition. Later, the author deeply describes the story behind the making of Richard Hamilton’s collage in great details: Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? He demonstrated how the conflicts between the members on the idea on of the collage. In the last part, the author revealed and discussed the multiple sources of Hamilton’s collage from many magazines.

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List of figures Figure 1: Jackson Pollock: Number I. 1948. Oil on canvas, 68x88 in. ………………………………………….p.6 Source: http://www.wikiart.org/en/jackson-pollock/no-1-1948?utm_source=returned&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=referral

Figure 2: Campbell’s soup Cans. 1961-62. Acrylic on canvas, 32 panels, each 20x16 in. ……………………….p.6 Source: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans-1962

Figure 3: A portrait of Jacque Tati as Hulot in Mon Oncle in front of his apartment in the old town. ………...p.9 Source: http://www.cinemas-online.co.uk/images/Mon_Oncle_pic_2%20(Large).jpg

Figure 4: The opening title of the Mon Oncle and its production credits. …………….………………….......p.10 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958 at 00:01:.30.

Figure 5: The exterior of Hulot’s suburban house. …………………………………………………………...p.13

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958 at 00:12:.00.

Figure 6: A view of the main square of Saint-Maur in front of Hulot’s house. ……………………………… p.13

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958 at 00:08:.40.

Figure 7: The urban environment in front of Villa Arpel.. ………………………………………………….....p14

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958, at 00:06.10.

Figure 8: Monsieur Arpel stands in front of Villa Arpel in Mon Oncle. ……………………………………....p.14 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958, at 00:04.10.

Figure 9: Madame Arpel is welcoming her friend, and then she has given her a short tour. …………………..p.15 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958, at 00:18.42 – 00:19:10

Figure 10: Madame Arpel is giving her neighbour a tour inside her Ultra-modern house. …………………….p.17

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958, at 00:32.00 – 00:33:00

Figure 11: Madame Arpel is preparing a hygienic meal for Gérard. …………………………………………...p.18

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958, at 00:48.10 – 00:48:35

Figure 12: Monsieur Arpel is sitting on the yellow rocking chair, and Arpel family has a meal with Hulot. …...p.18

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958, at 01:04:00 and at 36.46

Figure 13: Madame Arpel as a house-proud mum, performing her cleaning routine. …………………………p.19 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958.

Figure 14: Monsieur Arpel in different roles: as a husband, father, and businessman…………………………p.19

Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958.

Figure 15: Richard Hamilton’s collage: Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different so appealing 26 cm x 24.8 cm, 1956………………………………………………………………………………………....p.20 Source: http://ndla.no/en/node/19688

Figure 16: Multiple sources for Richard Hamilton’s collage. ………………………………………………….p.21 Source: Advertisement for Hoover Constellation, Reproduced in Ladies’ Home Journal in 1955.

Advertisement for Armour Star Ham, in 1949.

Photograph of Zabo Koszewski, Reproduced in Tomorrow’s Man in 1954

Figure 17: Self-made collage from a scene in Mon Oncle, revealing the Arpel’s materialistic world …………..p.23 Source: Veerasu Sae-Tae, made for TU Delft History Thesis 2016

Figure 18: Street views in Mon Oncle, reveals cars as a major transportation mean. ………………………….p.24 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958.

Figure 19: Arpel’s first luxury car - An Oldsmobile Super 88 in 1950, a production of General Motors, an American product. ………………………………………………………………………………………….....p.24 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958.

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Figure 20: Advertisements for an Oldsmobile Super 88 in 1950 with a slogan “Make a Date with the “88.” ”. p.25

Source: http://www.vintag.es/2012/10/1950-oldsmobile-rocket-88-adverts.html

Figure 21: A scene when Arpel is observing a Chevrolet Bel Air, 1956 and an advertisement for 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air with a slogan “Loves to go… and looks at it!”. ……………………………………………………….p.25 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/3943197550/in/pool-1404979@N25/

Figure 22: Hulot takes his nephew out into the city, where he is enjoying the moment of being a kid.………..p.27 Source: Mon Oncle [DVD] 1958.

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