Jour de fête DVD

Abstract

Jacques Tati, the French director, writer and comedian of Russian background is justly known as the heir of the best slapstick of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. His gentle, subtle humour reminds the contemporary viewer of the forgotten visual pleasures of the film medium's earlier days. Jour de fête, Tati's first feature, is dominated by the blundering postman François (Tati) who, inspired by a cinema newsreel, tries to introduce to a sleepy rural French town the "cutting edge" of the 1940s American postal technology, albeit with little success. Many François' characteristics foreshadow Monsieur Hulot, the famous character Tati introduced in his next film and which became his trademark. More than in the protagonist's own actions, Tati's slapstick is anchored in the hilarious reactions of those bewildered by the hero's slow-burn antics....