Jour de Fête

Jour de fête is set in the rural Sainte-Sévère, where a fair arrives with caravans, a carousel, and a traveling cinema. For the astonished villagers, a documentary is shown about the modern, automated practices of the American postal service. Inspired by this image of efficiency, François, the local postman, decides to deliver his mail in the same fast and progressive manner as his American colleagues. With his old bicycle and great determination, he attempts to drastically speed up his work, which inevitably leads to a series of comical misunderstandings and physical entanglements in the village. 

The film has also been restored in 4K, bringing the colorful village world, physical comedy, and meticulous mise-en-scène of Tati to life with renewed clarity and detail. Essentially, Jour de fête marks the starting point of Tati’s thematic universe: the humorous yet critical view of modernization, seen through the eyes of ordinary people trying to keep pace with a world that wants to go faster and faster.