DrStrangelife I believe that people do not do justice to Etaix's "Yoyo". The endless comparisons to Tati are only partly justifiable.Etaix embarks on a serious quest with this film. To portray life. Not only a branch of life - filmed with the utmost care for the smallest, microscopic detail; filmed to make us realize and appreciate the little things; filmed to make us laugh when the endless combination of detail assembles a film of comedy; like our dear Tati loved to create; BUT life itself - filmed with the philosophical and saddening need to show it in its macroscopic beauty and horror: Love, Beauty, Wealth, Poverty, War, and Suffering. The joyfulness of this film is just a wrapping for the serious content within:Father who lived a luxurious life in a villa, is sad, and dreams of love; Yoyo who lived a poor life as a circus clown, is also sad, but dreams of wealth. Later in the film they both acquired their dreams there, where the other had thought to have lacked it. However the ending portrays something else. Yoyo rides an elephant into a swimming pool and the pool turns into circus. Maybe one of the oldest lessons, found also in the Bible, that wealth will not make you happy? Or maybe for each viewer his own ending.This film is a drama. And its images affirm this. Many scenes and the melody that is played throughout the film, really underlines the overall beauty of this work. "Yoyo" is truly a piece of art. I loved this film and I must say I did not expect it to be this heart touching while making me laugh at the same time. I believe Etaix should not be solely discussed along others like Tati, Chaplin, Keaton, Marx brothers etc. Because then "Yoyo" will not be appreciated fully; and solely as a comedy "Yoyo" is not that good either. I cannot say whether Etaix should belong alongside with Bresson, Gordad, Truffaut, Renoir, Resnais etc. But I can surely say that he is not far off.

MartinHafer squeaky shoes, drawers, carts, etc. much like "The Artist" minimal dialogPierre Étaix co-directed one of Jacques Tati's great hits, "Mon Oncle" and I noticed that many folks think his style is very close to Tati's--which it is. However, and this is very important, if you don't like Tati's film, you'll probably not be particularly fond of "Yoyo". The film looks a bit like the recent film "The Artist" combined with Tati as well as Chaplin. Many love this, it's true. I didn't. I just felt that the pacing was extremely slow and the film lacked energy and fun.The film begins with a bored, rich guy (Pierre Étaix) in a huge house. He seems to have no interest in anything and eventually you learn it's because he's lost his love--a woman who ran off to be in the circus. This portion of the film is very much like a silent film--with very little dialog and VERY over-exaggerated sound effects. I thought it rather annoying when you hear almost explosively loud squeaking shoes and sliding drawers. It was supposed to be funny...it wasn't. When the stock market crashes in 1929, the bored rich guy sells off the contents of his house and goes in search of this lady love. They meet and tour the country entertaining--along with her son (the rich guy now realizes he has a kid), Yoyo. Yoyo is a small and very talented clown and when he grows, he is ALSO played by Étaix. He moves back into the empty mansion and restores it to its old glory--but eventually it turns out he's pretty bored and the home is emotionally empty.If you like mimes and Jacques Tati, then by all means watch this film. Otherwise, for me, it just wasn't particularly interesting. While it had some very nice sight gags, I just didn't care one bit about the characters--a serious flaw.

alan-51-111974 I'm 47. It's genius. I have no other words, to say them would be a disservice.OK my review didn't pass the quantity test: I have to write more lines otherwise I can't submit this.Tarkovsky's "Ivan's Childhood" has burnt indelible images into my mind, so did this film.This film also bought me joy. It's very beautiful, very very funny and at times very sad.It's highly stylised throughout, each period of the story is depicted through the cinema conventions of that period (somewhat). The stylisation continues through highly over-exaggerated but incredibly musical sound design and almost no dialogue.The cinematography is stunning, the direction and editing are stunning, the performances are excellent throughout.I may be alone in thinking that this is one of the greatest films but please make your own judgement, I'm happy.

B-rapunSaario *I'm afraid I can't avoid spoilers in this review.I was rather surprised there were no comments posted on this movie. Not many people seem to have seen "Yoyo" nowadays. It is a pity, as I find it a significant one, working on many levels. The director, Pierre Étaix, obviously fancied circus as an art form, but he really kept the circus performances to the minimum in this movie. The movie concentrates on the things the life as a touring circus artist represents; Simple, but free way of living. The movie shows us the development from silent movies to the television era. The first half an hour is silent apart from special sound effects. In my opinion, this is the best part of the movie. It makes fun of the life of the materially fortunate, and some of the scenes are absolutely hilarious, with a whole bunch of servants pretending to take their jobs seriously and their master pretending to enjoy his pointless life.The second part of the movie is no longer silent. It concentrates on Yoyo, the son of the rich man of the first part. Yoyo has spent his childhood in a circus group. He unfortunately sees only the glamor of his father's life and ends up searching happiness from wealth and materia. In the third part, in the television era, we see Yoyo's disappointment to the conventional life of the upper class. The circle of life has been completed, as the son has repeated his father's mistakes and ended up in the situation his father was in at the start of the movie. The simple but emotional (sad) story and the development of movie as an art form, already form an interesting and meaningful entity. But there is more to this movie.The pace of the movie is quite fast, but what really keep the spectator focused are the ubiquitous gags. Nothing really spectacular is seen, but the number and the good taste of the jokes create a warm and amusing atmosphere. Both sad and funny, both light and meaningful, "Yoyo" is a movie for everyone. I'd say the only real problem is the slight loss of integrity towards the end of the film. "Yoyo" definitely deserves more attention.