Jour De Fete

Jacques Tati, France 1949, 87 minutes

There's no one quite like Jacques Tati, a meticulous and innovative comic genius whose work grows from an acute but benevolent observation of humanity. He made only five feature films but as writer, director, and star of each of them he developed new techniques of filmmaking that influenced the nouvelle vague. His films are coloured by an abiding fascination with progress and gadgetry. Tati himself characterised his humour as "laughter born of a certain fundamental absurdity". Some things are not funny of themselves but become so on being dissected." Or as that famous corollary to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle puts it - anything becomes funny if you look at it hard enough.

Jour de Fete was Tati's first feature and is built upon his short L'ecole des Facteurs. In it he plays Francois, the postman of a small French village who is so impressed with the methods and discipline of the American postal system as seen in a training film that he tries to introduce them to his own job. As always, the connection between the theory and the real world is never quite secure, leading to all manner of comic opportunities which the film gleefully seizes.

This is truly international humour, very visual in style, with a minimal plot in which music, sound effects and speech are used only as embellishments. Tati the actor is lanky and awkward with all the skill of the great silent comedians to command the screen. The timing and sheer cleverness of the gags is breathtaking. But, above all, this film is supremely good-natured. We can laugh at the idiocies and embarrassment of Francois and his fel low villagers, but only because we recognise ourselves in them. Perfectly managing to be neither acerbic nor sentimental, just gently and gloriously funny, Jour de Fete is a delight.

Review by Alison Dalzell
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98