A Frenchman of Russian origins, Jacques Tati worked as a picture-framer and a music-hall mime before being drawn into the world of the French cinema and making the films that rank him with the most popular comedy actor/directors in any country. He brought to his films--"Jour de Fete, Monsieur Hulot's Holidays, Mon Oncle, Playtime" and others--a healthy openness to new technology in movie-making and a rigorous precision, the hallmark of many great clowns, in the execution of each scene. In this, the first complete, authoritative biography of the French icon, David Bellos has had the complete collaboration of Tati's daughter, and the freedom to examine hitherto inaccessible archives including film footage, videos, taped interviews, and early drafts of shooting scripts. What emerges is the picture of a man at once dedicated, impassioned, and shy, more an artist than a man of business.