Jour de Fete Reviews

Quite clever. The first feature film by Jacques Tati was actually a lengthened version of his short L'ECOLE DES FACTEURS, and helped gain Tati an international reputation as one of the best film comics to come out of France. Also starring in JOUR DE FETE, Tati plays the postman of a small sleepy village who becomes obsessed with applying the methods of the American postal system, as seen in a short educational film, to his job. This simple premise provides an abundance of opportunities for Tati to engage in some spectacular jokes. The emphasis of Tati's style was always aimed at the visual, music and dialog being used only to enhance what was being seen. The results were quite successful in producing laughter from cinema patrons in almost every country, and had a large impact upon the editing techniques later to be used by Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.