1949 - 76 minutes - black and white/color
Tati designed the figure of the postman on the bicycle, Francois, in his earlier movie L'école des facteurs in 1946. This 18 minute movie is the raw draft for Jour de Fête
Jour de Fête uses no dialogue at all to esablisch the setting. The story plays in the small village "Sainte-Sévère". In the movie called "Follainville". The arrival of the traveling fair is shown. The caravan winds its way into the village and comes to a halt in the town's square; the circusman opens the door of his trailer, comes out and sets off. Only at this point you can hear articulated language. For the rest of the film, most of the fragments of speech are strictly narrative terms.
Tati plays the clumsy postman Francois and has his own way of delivery; "Why today if it also can be done tomorrow ? ".
The returning line in the movie is a little old wife who gives her opinion about the way things go. In reality this part was played by a man.
The rest in Follainville gets disordered by the yearly festival. In the cinema plays a movie about the fast, modern way of mail delivery in America. Of course not comparable with the way Francois slowly delivers the local mail.
The movie has a great influence on Francios. He want's also deliver the mail fast en flashy as the Americans. Two circus men are willing to teach him the profession.
After a wild visit at the café , Francois gets a lesson in "Tournée à l'américaine".
The Thomson company offers Tati to use their new color technology. Jour de Fête would be the first movie in color in the French history. For all safety Tati shoots the movie parallel with a color- and black and white camera.
Lucky for him because the new color technic don't work. Thomson closes the factory.
Tati is disappointed because the beautiful colors of the festival and the small village don't come to their right in the black an white movie. Thats why he tried in 1964, with stencilcolor technology to create the feeling.
