Mr. Hulot drives a recreational vehicle from Paris to Amsterdam in his usual comical, disastrous style.
At Altra Motors, Mr. Hulot designs an ingenious camper car with lots of clever features. A lorry hauls the prototype to an important auto show in Amsterdam, with Mr. Hulot alongside in his car and a spoiled, trendy PR exec, the young Maria, in her sports car packed with designer clothes and her fluffy dog. The lorry has every imaginable problem, delaying its arrival. A flat tire, no gas, an accident, a run-in with police, a stop at a garage, and numerous traffic jams showcase vignettes of people and their cars. Through interactions with these down-to-earth folks, Maria gradually loses her imperious conceit, becoming much more relaxed and fetching.—<[email protected]>
In Trafic Mr. Hulot (Jacques Tati) is the designer for Altra, a Paris car company that has one new model van for camping. The annual auto show is being held and the company is desperately trying to finish the van and all the display items to pack up and take to the auto show in Amsterdam but the entire work force is a collection of haphazard workers doing their jobs without any real sense of expertise. The van has been completed but doesnt actually run yet so Hulot and his Mechanic (Tony Knepper) have to push the van up a ramp into a truck to transport it to Amsterdam. The Public Relations Representative (Maria Kimberly) tries to navigate the entire process consistently attempting to motivate everyone with her American spirit. Along the way from Paris through Belgium to Amsterdam they break down, run out of gas, get arrested by the Police, and cause a multi-car auto accident, but manage to get to the auto show. Hulot meanders through it all with his usual pluck just beyond the reach of the fickle finger of fate.
