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Cinema - Jour de Fete
It’s 1949 and France is getting over the war. Virtually
everybody’s life has been touched by tragedy. The French
are rebuilding their country with the help of Marshall Plan
money. There is an ambivalent feeling towards the Americans
as such aid comes at a price: US cultural imperialism is making
its mark. In such a scenario Jacques Tati made and set his
debut film as a director, Jour de Fete (Holiday). Tati plays
a postman in the sleepy provincial town of Saint Severe sur
Indre. Once a year a fair comes to town, with a cinema. This
year’s film is a documentary showing the speed, efficiency
and modernity of the US postal service. Afterwards the townspeople
mock Tati for his old and cumbersome ways. So he decides to
modernize his service by devising a number of ingenious ways
of delivering the mail. Sometimes these experiments lead to
unexpected consequences.
My parents, who are in their seventies, think that Jacques
Tati is the funniest man in the world. While his films have
certainly dated, the more you watch of them, the more you
are drawn in by their sweet, unthreatening charm. Sometimes
you laugh out loud. You can forgive Tati, in the circumstances,
for not putting any darkness into the humour he creates. There
had been enough darkness and desperation in real life. During
the war Tati himself had gone into hiding in Saint Severe
sur Indre, on the run from the Nazis after being drafted to
work in a slave-labour camp in Germany. DL |
