Jour de Fête
The tranquil village of Folainville is in a state of emergency: the annual village festival is coming up, lanterns are dangling in the summer breeze, the mayor is going crazy, the landlady is wearing Parisian haute couture and postman François (Jacques Tati) is completely thrown off balance. When the traveling cinema shows a documentary about the ultra-fast American postal service, François decides to transform himself into a turbo version of a mail carrier. From then on, he races through the village on his bicycle. Letters fly, chickens flutter, and even the cows look confused. The attempt to squeeze American speed into French leisureliness naturally ends in wonderfully comical chaos. Without many words, but with a lot of charm and situational comedy, Jacques Tati, in his first feature film, shows that progress does not always mean progress - and that a letter sometimes arrives better when it is delivered with a smile instead of full speed.