Jour de fête (1949)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Jacques Tati

Writers:

Jacques Tati (writer) and
Henri Marquet (writer) ...

Release Date:

4 May 1949 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Once a year the fair comes for one day to the little town 'Sainte-Severe-sur-Indre'. All inhabiters are scoffing at Francois...

Plot Keywords:

Mail | Postman | Slapstick | Village | Very Little Dialogue

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Guy Decomble	...	Roger
Jacques Tati	...	François, the postman
Paul Frankeur	...	Marcel
Santa Relli	...	Roger's wife
Maine Vallée	...	Jeannette
Delcassan	...	The tattler
Roger Rafal	...	The hair-dresser
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Balpo

Also Known As:

Holiday
The Big Day

Runtime:

70 min | Argentina:80 min (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema) | Germany:79 min | Finland:86 min (1960) | 79 min (restored version)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White (original release) | Color (Thomsoncolor) (alternate version, first released after restoration in 1995)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Portugal:M/6 | Australia:G | Argentina:Atp | Finland:S | Germany:6 (nf) (w) | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Sainte-Sévère-sur-Indre, Indre, France

Company:

Cady Films

Trivia:

The movie was originally filmed in Thomson-color, a process that became extinct before prints of the film could be shown and was previously only available in a black and white version that was filmed as a precaution, in case the color process was not perfect. In 1995 the color copy was restored and published by Tati's daughter Sophie Tatischeff, and cinematographer François Ede.

Movie Connections:

Remake of L'école des facteurs (1947)

The bicycle as ideal transport

You see the upcoming problems of traffic in this little village just after the war, I guess somewhere in Normandy where the bicycle of François the postman can drive from village to village. Some cars were driven really dangerously because nobody was conscious of the danger of accidents and some people drove to fast through the villages where everybody still lived on the street: the dogs as well as the chickens as the gooses as the elder people. When François gets drunk he enters the local café and stands in two seconds at the window of the first floor! The movie is full of gags that are inspired by Buster Keaton but absolutely original. The people he has to deliver the letters, peasants and habitants of the village shout at him: "A l'Americaine" which means fast and efficient but one of them also comments that he just should deliver the letters and that this is already quite an accomplishment. And yes, in Belgium postmen are now checked on maximum 9 seconds for delivering a letter. There also calculations to make another tariff for delivering letters in places far away. Jacques Tati is unsurpassed as a French comic and he has a very special place in history of French cinema not to be compared with anyone else.