Jour De Fête
A comedy written and directed by Jacques Tati, who plays a bumbling postman in the French countryside who tries to adopt the modern, automated methods of the American postal service.
In Jacques Tati’s charming — and essentially plotless — pre-Hulot first feature, Tati is François, a contented and happy postman in a small, unhurried French village. François is at ease with his job and leisurely performs his duties, peddling away on his rounds upon his beloved bicycle. Things perk up when a traveling funfair arrives in town. One of the attractions at the fair is a film depicting the United States Postal Service’s fast and efficient postal delivery system. The narrator in the film exhorts, ‘Rapidité, rapidité.’ Francois takes up the call, and attempts to Americanize his work style.
His debut film Jour De Fête essentially marks the starting point of Tati’s thematic universe: a humorous yet critical look at modernisation, seen through the eyes of ordinary people trying to keep pace with a world that is moving ever faster.