Jour de Fête

In this, his first feature film, Jacques Tatí plays a bicycle postman. The movie opens when a traveling fair sets up in town. On the jour de fête (day of the fair), Tatí’s postman is inspired by a film portraying the speed and efficiency of American postmen, who use helicopters and jump their motorbikes through hoops of fire. Had he been born 30 years sooner, Tatí would have rivaled Chaplin as one of the great silent comics. In this film, his comedy is still mostly physical slapstick. (In later films, his physical humor became more subtle, as though an amused Martian were watching the quirks of these funny Earthlings). This one is not as masterful as Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, or as weird as Mon Oncle, but it is still funny. The Criterion LaserDisc also includes an additional featurette and hand-colored scenes not available since the film’s release.