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Review
Jacques Tati’s first full-length film, Jour de fête paints a beautifully
evocative and detailed picture of life in a provincial French town just after the War.
The film is actually a longer version of an earlier Tati film, L’école
des facteurs and is notable for a number of reasons.
Primarily, the film established Tati as one of the great comic legends of French cinema – his films being widely appreciated way beyond the borders of France. It was also one of the earliest French films to be filmed entirely in colour, although the colour version could not be developed at the time (because of limitations of photographic technology) and has only recently been released. Luckily, Tati made a black and white version at the same time and this is the version which most people will have seen. In keeping with Tati’s style, the emphasis is always on the visuals – which affords us some spectacular photography, meticulous editing, and some splendid comic antics. Dialogue and music are used sparingly, merely to emphasise the visual message. This is an approach which Tati was one of the few directors to master completely and the enduring success of this film is a testament to his unquestionable genius.
Tati’s impact on French cinema cannot be understated. Apart from his own personal
success, he had a great influence on subsequent directors, such as François Truffaut
and Jean-Luc Godard, the architects of the French New Wave. Tati’s films remain
popular today throughout the world.
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Director:
Jacques Tati
Starring: Jacques Tati, Jacques Beauvais, Guy Decomble, Santa Relli Synopsis
Once a year, the fair comes to the sleepy French country town of Sainte- Severe- sur-
Indre. The locals poke fun at their postman, François, and, having got him
drunk, they lead him to a tent to watch a short educational film. The film is promoting
revolutionary methods of improving mail delivery in the United States. François
decides that he can use some of the ideas to improve his productivity...
Credits
 More French Comedy |
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