just ok...

...just browsed the special features...l'ecole des facteurs was actually pretty great...theres hope for tati yet.

For me it's the best Tati film.
Besides all qualities that many wrote about this film,
I like the 50's atmosphere, even though I wasn't born yet.
And also that idea of future, that really never happened.
A bit too melancholic twowards the end.

As for the gin, the movie is great for accompanying wine
and whiskey too. Which is a very rare quality in a movie,
except musicals, of course.
So, please increase the gin and watch it again.

You're right, it is an acquired taste. I acquired it after years going through Kubrick, Lynch, Kurosawa, Herzog, Bunuel, Tarkovsky, Bergman, etc. I think that it is not just you but the whole pop-approach to film that hinders your enjoyment of this movie. It is a different discussion why vast number of A-list auteurs make movies around themes of dehumanization through mechanization, institutionalization and industrialization (not in any specific order), but it is important to note that Tati follows suit. In his own way, he is most definitely an auteur. And to appreciate any auteur-filmmaker (including all of those I've listed), it is important to understand their approach to film in relation to the language of film itself.

Tati for me is special because his style is one of many many layers. Being once a brat whose favourite movies only included Hollywood hits, I was only able to discern the most obvious metaphors- which are few; so the movie would seen boring.

But on subtlety: for example the movie often cuts away just as the height of humour is about to emerge- this is brilliant because it demands imagination and participation on your part to make the movie work.

Other examples: "the school is a factory" - the school at first just looks like an ordinary modernistic school; but if you would recall this image as the film progresses, you'd notice "Ah, the factory face is designed identically and is shot from the same angle; and because the design looks more industrial than academic, the film is therefore saying that schools are like factories as opposed to the other way round." A less subtle filmmaker would find a way to intercut the two images creating humour that is more readily available. Ditto the comparison between the random puppies on the street and the rascal children. See?

Tati does tons of things with design, colours, etc. And there are minor-minor gags throughout. It is a very unique style which we would likely never see again. Ironically, Tati is influential to the Monty Pythons (note that Terry Jones does the intro), who in turn are influential to the outrageous humour of the likes of Conan O'Brien and MADTV which are exactly why people now would not understand Tati. Pity, isn't it?

I first saw this in film class in college and loved it. I remembered very little about it except for the house and the way the family acted. I couldn't remember what it was called -- just the film where "when they had company they had to turn on the fish". That fish cracked me up. Years later I found it in a film store and remembered the whole thing.

The old neighborhood reminds me of Louveciennes and the other places Anais Nin wrote about. You can see some of them in Henry & June. I found the ending sad as well.

I think we've all been conditioned through decades of watching movies to expect certain things when going into a movie. If we hear something is a great comedy, we're going to want to watch it because we think it's going to have the same elements as other comedies we enjoyed in the past. Then when we watch the movie, we're always waiting for those things to happen, and so miss what the movie actually has to offer. It's really too bad. I think it helps when people explain why they think a movie is so good, rather than just say "it's a classic."

Personally I didn't think this movie is an acquired taste, but you do have to have a certain kind of attitude to really enjoy the satire. For one thing, it doesn't help if you have or aspire toward the kind of lifestyle that is being mocked here. But if you've really felt and despised the pettiness and superficial preoccupations of most of the people around you, then you'll revel in all the absurdities made so obvious in this movie. It's a kind of quiet revenge, as I think is the case with most good comedy.

I will agree with the OP that while it wasn't incredibly teriible, it was fairly uninteresting. The design was interesting, but that can't sustain it for 2hrs.

"No man is just a number"

Watching "Mon Oncle" on TCM this weekend was less than an enjoyable experience. In fact, I found it excruciatingly slow and not particularly funny. I think the nearly two hours running length worked against the film. I kept thinking, "Will this never end?" There are a few clever, funny sequences in the film, generally brief in length. But I just never found Jacques Tati as funny as he seems to think he is. Perhaps Tati is an acquired taste, but as I watched the film I thought, "No wonder the French idolized Jerry Lewis." I fear that that the host of "Essentials Jr." Bill Hader did his young viewers a real disservice by including this slow-paced, less-than-comedic film among his 2013 summer selections. I also couldn't help wonder what prompted the Motion Picture Academy to award this film its "Best Foreign Film" Oscar in 1959, unless it was to honor Jacques Tati with more of what might be construed as a Lifetime Achievement Award.

I also checked it out this weekend on TCM. I like to think of myself as a movie buff/connoisseur...I ended up changing the channel. I tried for a while to watch it with the sound off to enjoy the "silent movie" aspect of it (because I couldn't stand the music), but in the end I gave up. No knock on the movie, or anyone who loves it as a classic, or just plain loves it. I threw in the towel.