Tati's first feature, while not a silent, introduced some of the finest mime and slapstick humor since the heyday of Chaplin and Keaton. Tati plays a village postman who, influenced by an advertising film at a visiting fair, decides he can singlehandedly emulate the streamlined New York Postal Service for his sleepy town. Roy Armes writes in French Cinema: "Jour de f?te mixes comedy of all kinds-gently rustic humor, pure slapstick, and satire on the modern craze for speed. Tati was a mime before becoming a filmmaker and this film recalls silent screen comedy in its reliance on visual humor. Tati's music-hall training has enabled him to master the essential of all screen comedy: the art of timing his gags."