Jour de Fête
Director: Jacques Tati
Year Released: 1949
Rating: 3.0
During a tiny French town's fair, postman François (Tati himself) tries to revolutionize his delivery methods (after watching an amusing newsreel about "the American method" of mail transit) except the locals (and random objects ... and his own klutziness) keep impeding his progress. It's easy to look at this very, very light first feature by Tati and see a tremendous amount of actorly confidence and, of course, his attention to detail and timing are exemplary. His main interests in this feature - a fascination with technology and the chaos that exists in everyday life - would be continued in later films (Mon Oncle); four years later, he would make his first low-key, melancholy masterpiece (M. Hulot's Holiday).
