The Big Day

Jour de Fete (1948)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Tati's remake of his short École des facteurs, L' has him playing a simple and rather dimwitted postman who becomes a laughing stock when a fair comes to town. At the fair a movie is shown saying that the American postal service is the greatest in the world as they never stop and contain the best service when it comes to delivering mail. After seeing this our French postman decides to step up his own game. Perhaps I made a mistake in watching the short film first but I actually thought it was better than this feature version. This remake really only becomes one during the final twenty-minutes when nearly every gag from the short is copied over. I didn't find any of the gags here to work as well and that includes the riding on the back of the truck, the church bell and of course the bike running around on its own. The added gag of Tati accidentally hitting a large pig in the road got a small chuckle but it wasn't hilarious. The first hour of the film kept me entertained but I'd be lying if I say I laughed a lot. For the most part the film, due to Tati's performance, kept a smile on my face but for a comedy I was really hoping to laugh more. I found the biggest problem to be with the supporting characters who don't support Tati very well. There are countless gags that these supporting players set up but they add very little to the joke and again everything has to fall on Tati. The scene where they try to get the pole up in the air was very funny though.