Sound in Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle

In Mon Oncle (1958), sound is used a great deal to enhance the attributes of different characters and different environments. This is done in several ways, but right now I wish to focus on the use (and non-use) of music. It is perhaps interesting to note that music is present only in the world of Monsieur Hulot. Most other filmmakers, I think, would have had music in the world of the Arpels as well. Or does Tati do this? Because of the way he exaggerates the noises we hear in the Arpel world, one might consider it an expression of the philosophy presented in Luigi Russolo’s L’arte dei Rumori, in which the noises of the modern world are considered musical in their own right. On the other hand, it is possible that Tati might have intended the lack of music to symbolise the philistinism of the modern world. But whether we decide these sounds have a certain musical quality or are just noise is perhaps not very important. The lack of (traditional) music in the Arpel world greatly emphasises the sounds we do hear. This, combined with the visual differences onscreen creates greater perception of the social and ideological distance between the Arpel and Hulot worlds.

Mon Oncle is such a good comic film. I find it interesting to compare it with Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936), which, though very different, is similar in that it lampoons the technology, machinery, and values of the modern world. In Modern Times, though still essentially a silent film (well, a film without much dialogue anyway), Chaplin nevertheless does use sound effects in a limited way, particularly for the sake of emphasising the comedy coming from the modern technology (especially the first fifteen minutes or so). Chaplin’s Modern Times is a great cinematic masterpiece, but Tati’s Mon Oncle goes even further in its use of sound for enhancing/telling the story.