Mon Oncle ending explained

What happens

After Hulot ruins the factory job, M. Arpel sends him away to work in the provinces. At the airport Hulot leaves, and father and son return home to the same house. Nothing there has really changed.

The last image

The Arpel house goes on with its routines, the same pattern of life resuming as if Hulot had never been there.

What it says

Hulot cannot fit the Arpels' tidy world, and they will not bend to his, so he leaves and the routines resume. The film values human scale over tidy surfaces, and the ending leaves that question for you to carry home.