Jacques Tati

Jour de fête

Jour de fête

In his enchanting debut feature, Jacques Tati stars as a fussbudget of a postman who is thrown for a loop when a traveling fair comes to his village. Even in this early work, Tati was brilliantly toying with the devices (silent visual gags, minimal yet deftly deployed sound effects) and exploring the theme (the absurdity of our increasing reliance on technology) that would define his cinema.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1949
  • 86 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • French
  • Spine #730

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Two alternate versions of the film: director Jacques Tati’s 1964 reedit, featuring hand-colored objects and newly incorporated footage, and the full-color 1995 rerelease, completed from Tati’s original color negatives
  • À l’américaine, a 2013 visual essay by Tati expert Stéphane Goudet tracking the evolution of Tati’s comedy
  • “Jour de fête”: In Search of the Lost Color, a 1988 documentary on the restoration of the film to Tati’s original color vision
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation

Available In

Collector's Set

The Complete Jacques Tati

The Complete Jacques Tati

Blu-ray Box Set

7 Discs

$99.96

Collector's Set

The Complete Jacques Tati

The Complete Jacques Tati

DVD Box Set

12 Discs

$99.96

Special Features

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Two alternate versions of the film: director Jacques Tati’s 1964 reedit, featuring hand-colored objects and newly incorporated footage, and the full-color 1995 rerelease, completed from Tati’s original color negatives
  • À l’américaine, a 2013 visual essay by Tati expert Stéphane Goudet tracking the evolution of Tati’s comedy
  • “Jour de fête”: In Search of the Lost Color, a 1988 documentary on the restoration of the film to Tati’s original color vision
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
Jour de fête
Cast
Jacques Tati
François
Guy Decomble
Roger
Paul Frankeur
Marcel
Santa Relli
Carnie wife
Maine Vallée
Jeannette
Roger Rafal
Hairdresser
Valy
Edith
Jacques Beauvais
Bondu
Delcassan
Old biddy
Credits
Director
Jacques Tati
Written by
Jacques Tati
Written by
Henri Marquet
With the collaboration of
René Wheeler
Director of photography
Jacques Mercanton
Color film camera operator
Jacques Sauvageot
Camera assistants
Marcel Franchi
Camera assistants
Jean Mousselle
Camera assistants
Roger Moride
Set designer
René Moulaërt
Music
Jean Yatove
Sound recordist
Jacques Maumont
Costumes
Jacques Cottin
Script supervisor
Lydie Noël
Production manager
Fred Orain

Current

Jacques Tati: Things Fall Together
Jacques Tati: Things Fall Together

In cinema history, there truly is no gag like a Tati gag.

By David Cairns

Jacques Tati, Historian
Jacques Tati, Historian

Tati’s witty visual comedy also functioned as satire of a rapidly modernizing postwar France.

By Kristin Ross

Jacques Tati: Composing in Sound and Image
Jacques Tati: Composing in Sound and Image

What you hear is as crucial—and as funny—as what you see in Tati’s films.

By Jonathan Rosenbaum

Scatterbrained Angel: The Films of Jacques Tati
Scatterbrained Angel: The Films of Jacques Tati

Though he emerged from established stage and screen comedy traditions, Tati invented a completely new filmic language.

By James Quandt

Tati in Los Angeles

Repertory Picks

Tati in Los Angeles

In celebration of Bastille Day, the American Cinematheque treats L.A. audiences to a double dose of comedic genius from the beloved French filmmaker.

A Moment with Jacques Tati

Flashbacks

A Moment with Jacques Tati

The author recalls meeting the filmmaker in a Swedish hotel in the ’70s.

By Peter Cowie

Explore

Jacques Tati

Writer, Actor, Director

Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati

It’s rare for a director’s physical appearance to be as iconic as Jacques Tati’s is. Not just the writer and director of a series of beloved French comedies—including M. Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, Playtime, and Trafic—but their star, Tati embodied the befuddled, eternally umbrella-carrying and trench-coated Monsieur Hulot, perennially unable to adjust to a rapidly modernizing world, with empathy and a delightful comic precision. The latter trait was undoubtedly due to his early career as a mime in French music halls; when he switched to film, he adapted his penchant for mute comedy not only to his character but also to his directing style. There’s very little audible dialogue in Tati’s films, and their spare use of sound contributes to the overall sense they create of a forbidding, contemporary world in which Hulot feels adrift and superfluous. Add Tati’s brilliant knack for composition, expertise at choreographing deadpan slapstick, and grandiose vision (his 70 mm Playtime, one of the most expensive French productions in history to that point, bankrupted him), and you’ve got one of the most enjoyable, singular oeuvres in film.