 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Format: VHS
Not Rated
Recording Mode: (unknown)
80 min. |
|
|
|
|
|
Details
Movie Description
A wonderful comedy by the hilarious actor/director Jacques Tati starring as a small-town mailman who develops a mania for implementing the high-speed delivery techniques he witnessed in an American postal film. Home Vision version includes the short "L'Ecole des Facteurs."
Synopsis
A joyful, almost silent comedy set in the French countryside.
Francois, a village postman, zips through his rounds on his bicycle -- the old-fashioned way. But when a traveling carnival comes to town, its proprietors show a film extolling the virtues of modern American mail delivery. Soon the townspeople start to wonder if Francois has fallen behind the times. But Francois is about to show everyone that he has a few tricks up his sleeve... and the villagers might just rue the day they ever started to complain!
Film Notes
The video was placed on moratorium on May 31, 1996.
The Home Vision Cinema VHS version includes a Tati short entitled "L'Ecole des Facteurs". The print of "Jour de Fête" is from the Janus collection; it includes hand-tinted color sequences restored to the film for the first time since its original release.
The film cost approximately $30,000 to make, and earned $12,000 in its first week of release -- even though it only played in 4 theaters in Paris.
Apparently, several cuts of the film exist. Variety lists the running time for the film (at the original French screening) at 90 minutes; the American version is trimmed by about 10 minutes.
Filmed in St. Severe, France.
Other actors who appear in the cast are: Paul Frankeur (The Circus Assistant); Santa Rellie (The Old Lady); Maine Vallee (The Young Girl); and the inhabitants of St. Severe-sur-Indre.
Producer Borrah Minevitch is American; he was living in Paris when he discovered Tati. Minevitch was responsible for preparing the English version of the film. Jacques Pilsdoes the English narration.
The film was released in France in May, 1949; it did not show in the United States until 1952.
Industry Reviews
"...The endlessly inventive film that launched Tati's career....There are sight gags galore and plenty of heartfelt laughter in JOUR DE FETE....There is also a refreshing gentleness and a simple innocence..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Mary Houlihan (01/16/1998)
"The humour in Tati's delightful debut is fuelled by the steady accumulation of detail."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (02/01/2005)
|
|
|
|
All rights reserved.
