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Jour de fête

Screening on Film
Directed by Jacques Tati.
With Jacques Tati, Guy Decomble, Paul Frankeur.
France, 1948, 35mm, color, 76 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA

M is for Mail Call 

The debut feature by Jacques Tati, France’s answer to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Jour de fête follows the bungling adventures of a small-town mailman who, after hearing about the efficiency of the American postal service, decides that it is time to emulate it in France. His manic new delivery system sets out to modernize but brings about the opposite result. Tati provides brilliant performance as well as direction as he mixes physical comedy with keen observational humor. This is the reissued "splash color" version, an early experimental color-film process Tati shot along with the original 35mm black-and-white version.

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