School for Postmen

While I feel that a knowledge of Tati's entire oeuvre would be necessary to comment appropriately on his genius for physical comedy, this short is a fine introduction to the hallmarks of his style.

His gift for physical comedy is underscored by an understanding of the nuance and rhythm of motion, and how it portrays character. Underneath it all is his unfailing warmth for the beauty and simplicity of the human community -- at least the community where our familiarity with our neighbors carries the sweetness and lyricism so lost in the icy excess of the modern...and post-modern.

The scene where he enters a cafe and dances to jazz music, along with a few other couples who happen to be in the cafe, is masterful. The postman's joy in dance, in motion, and, most of all, in the spontaneous, is the stuff of genius.

What's more, it's great entertainment.

You may also marvel and wonder at just how he technically accomplished the shots of the postman's bicycle riding itself. My opinion is that Tati was a remarkable artist and the 20th century was graced by his presence beyond its merit.

Tati did more in less than half an hour here than most film artists will accomplish in their career.

In this short film - a sort of character study for the later full length feature 'Jour de Fete', Tati plays a postman who has to operate more efficiently to meet a new schedule. The way in which he tries to speed up his round while still sticking to all the human interactions that come with being a postmen in the - still rural - setting of a small French village in the mid of the 20th century. Tati's physical slapstick is simply delightful. His humour is never rude or degrading to anyone involved but merely wonders about the intricacies of human interaction. He has an incredible talent for showing us what this is *really* about and is disarming in his directness and honesty. Especially the dance sequence in the café brings my mind to a halt every time I see it ... there are no words to really do it justice.

Jacques Tati is very funny in this short film. Most of the scenes are used again in «Jour de fête» (1948), a full feature film.

François (played by Tati) is the local postman somewhere in rural France. He wants to be as fast as the American postmen!

Very funny movie that reminded me of some classic Chaplin performances from the 20's.

Out of 100, I gave it 80. That's *** on a four stars rating system.

School for Postmen (1947)

*** (out of 4)

Tati short has him playing a postman who will stop at nothing to get the mail delivered quickly. This was my first film from Tati and after hearing many comparisons to Chaplin it's easy to see why. I really loved the way he went for broke when it came to the humor in the film and that includes a wide range of gags ranging from literally riding his bike on the back of a truck to avoiding death by cutting in front of cars. I know Tati remade this with Jour de Fete but this short is still worth seeing. It really does play out a lot like a Chaplin short from the 1920s as Tati's character never says much of anything and him constantly getting into one mess after another makes for a sweet natured character that I really enjoyed. I'm still not quite sure how they got the bicycle to drive by itself but it was certainly a great gag.

It is one of the best early work of Tati. You can find all the gags of 'L'école des facteurs' in 'jour de fête' but I think that the timing is better in this one. It is in this piece that you realise how perfectionist Tati was.