Pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s wildly funny satire of vacationers determined to enjoy themselves includes a series of precisely choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers. The first entry in the Hulot series is a masterpiece of gentle slapstick. The soundtrack in Holiday instead is filled with a breezy jazz that perfectly captures the fleeting pleasures of a summer vacation, abetted magnificently by its sunny black-and-white cinematography. It's a one-of-a-kind film, a testament to transient joys that a perfect summer's holiday embody. And, despite its Palme d'or win at Cannes and its stateside Oscar nomination for best foreign film, the retro feel that the passing decades have bestowed upon it may make it even more enjoyable today than it was in 1953. Ages 6 and up. (Jake Euker)