Jour de fête

This loose series of village vignettes follows the misadventures of a postman (Tati) who, inspired by a hyperbolic newsreel at a traveling fair, attempts to emulate the spectacular speed and efficiency of the American postal service—on his bicycle. The fair’s boisterous energy, in contrast to the lull of village routine, is brilliantly evoked by the controlled cacophony of the soundtrack. The film was shot with two cameras, one loaded with black-and-white film and the other using a stock called Thomsoncolor, a technology so experimental that printing proved impractical; we present the black-and-white release version.