Popular reviews

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  Review by k(arst)en ★★★½ 4

  Definitely works better as a short, and I’ll agree with the majority that it feels like a whole lot of nothing at the end of the day. But there’s too much good and too much personality coming out of this to not enjoy it.

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  Review by Alicia Malone ★★★ 3

  This was the only Jacques Tati film I’d never seen, and I was very happy to right that wrong. I enjoy watching Tati for the way he marries character with physical comedy. Here, in his feature debut, he plays Francois, a postman in a small village who is encouraged to up his efficiency after seeing a film featuring speedy American postmen. There’s not much in the way of a plot, and some jokes work better than others... but it’s really fun to see Tati pre-Monsieur Hulot, knowing he was just about to hit his stride.

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★★

  How can one man’s movements be so graceful and so clumsy? Jacques Tati defied the laws of physics.

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  Review by Deckk ★★★ 2

  Clumsy local mailman François struggles to meet the people's expectations in terms of speed and efficiency after they've all watched a carnival spoof documentary about the astonishing capabilities of the U.S. post office.

  Me: "Mom can we have Buster Keaton?"
  Mom: "No, we have Buster Keaton at home."
  *Buster Keaton at home*

  I kid, I kid of course. Jacques Tati's feature film directorial debut may be as clearly inspired by silent comedy — Buster Keaton in particular — as Sergio Leone was by samurai movies, the Frenchman still has distinctly his own style of audiovisual comedy, greatly demonstrated here. Would've probably liked it more had Tati not also been inspired by Keaton's tendency to save all the good stuff for…

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  Review by russman ★★★½ 3

  I wish getting a haircut was really that quick

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  Review by tara ☁️ ★★★

  Expected a supervillain origin story from the amount of time they bullied and tossed poor François around.

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  Review by Will ★★★

  With his first feature length film, you can tell that Jacques Tati had a clear vision on what he wanted to achieve with his films. It’s incredible to see how far he came. It amazes me how effortless everything looks. The choreography, the timing and even the cinematography had to be done to a T. 
  Can’t wait to see the rest of his filmography.

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★ 24

  "Besides, news is rarely good, so let it take its sweet time."

  My first impression of Jacques Tati knowing nothing about him and very little about cinematic comedy in general is that he somehow manages to combine the archetypal talents of Chaplin and Keaton. He instills Jour de Fête with both the character- and performance-driven laughs of Chaplin's Tramp as well as the more stunt- and set-piece-oriented gags of Keaton. Whether they were specific inspirations or not, the influence of silent comedy is clear: while there is occasional spoken dialogue in the film, it's rarely the focus of the scene, and it's certainly never used to drive the plot or anything like that. Everything comes from and goes back to…

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  Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★½

  Pure form, and comedic set pieces built around a cannonball of a man blundering through scenery. Will he crash his bicycle? The film isn't much more than that, and it's delightful.

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  Review by Mathias Larsen ★★★ 4

  Jacques Tati is just Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton if they both had a mental disability. 

  fun watch, bit long maybe, I’ll never rewatch this.

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★

  Has those same constraints that one could expect from a first feature, but that's not to say Jour de Fête feels like it's ever held back by that. Many of the same sight gags that made Tati's films every bit as delightful as they are still work at their very best, but he also seems to be emphasizing writing most in here - which holds them back from reaching their potential.

  Yet there's still something endearing about Jacques Tati's presence alone, but how could one deny that he's just one of the best comedians of his own sort? Even though this was before Monsieur Hulot was created, there's a whole lot more to come forth.

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  Review by Ethan Lyon ★★★★ 4

  2nd Jacques Tati (after Mon Oncle)

  Sometimes, watching a film as an autistic person is an odd experience, especially comedy films. It's well-known that irony is somewhat lost on us, and we have a tendency to treat certain situations as inherently serious when they're supposed to be funny. I'm particularly susceptible to this. Often, I find the figures of fun in comedy films extremely relatable. It's why I think that Malvolio is really quite a sad character in Twelfth Night, unfairly taunted by two people who were getting in his way and then humiliated in front of everyone. But I digress, this is a Tati review. The reason I mention all this is because I kept feeling sorry for Tati's…