6:30 p.m.	Jour de fête Jacques Tati (France, 1949)

With his first feature, Tati was already mocking technological progress while embracing it in practice. This loose series of village vignettes follows the misadventures of a postman (Tati) who, inspired by a hyperbolic newsreel, attempts to emulate the spectacular speed and efficiency of the American postal service—on his bicycle. 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; the color version we present here remained unreleased for more than forty years. While Tati intended his color scheme to convey the contrast between the everyday drabness of a country town and the boisterous energy of a traveling fair—an ambiance brilliantly evoked and exploited in the controlled cacophony of the soundtrack—in fact the hues of Thomsoncolor are as delicate as a hand-tinted photograph, lending an air of gentle nostalgia to the film’s portrait of rural life.

—Juliet Clark

• Written by Tati, Henri Marquet. Photographed by Jacques Sauvageot, Jacques Mercanton. With Tati, Guy Decomble, Paul Frankeur, Santa Relli. (90 mins, Color, 35mm, From Janus/Criterion Collection)

Preceded by short:
The School for Postmen (L’école des facteurs) (Jacques Tati, France, 1947). A short preliminary sketch for Jour de fête. (18 mins, B&W, 35mm, From French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, permission Film Distribution)

• (Total running time: 108 mins, In French with English subtitles)