Jour de fête Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Jour de fête Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 8, 2014

Jacques Tati's "Jour de fete" a.k.a. "Holiday" arrives on Blu-ray courtesy Criterion. Included on this release are three different versions of the film: the original 1949 black-and-white version, the alternative 1964 version which features hand-painted color sequences and newly incorporated footage, and a 1995 full-color version. The supplemental features on the disc include an episode of the French television program Cinema cinemas and Stephane Goudet's documentary "L'Americaine" (2013). In French, with optional English subtitles for all three versions of the film. Region-A "locked".

The postman and his naughty bike

Jour de fete is part of Criterion's upcoming The Complete Jacques Tati Blu-ray box set, which will be available for purchase later this month.

Jacques Tati’s first feature film follows the deeds of an ambitious postman (played by the director himself) living and working in a small French village. The majority of the time the camera simply observes Francois from afar as he rides his bike and stops for a few seconds to give or collect letters. Francois rarely speaks, and when he does, it is virtually impossible to figure out what it is that he is saying.

During a local fair, Francois watches a short film about the American postal system that quickly inspires him to change his delivery methods. Encouraged by some of his customers, he pushes himself to work twice as fast in order to maximize his efficacy. Very soon, however, his desire to impress the villagers causes all sort of serious problems and places him right in the middle of some absolutely hilarious situations.

Jour de fete is structured as a collage of short episodes, each having the postman facing some sort of a minor challenge. The manner in which he deals with these challenges is often quite amusing as the logic he follows is, to say the least, surprising. Though at times it may seem like some of the episodes are too casual, Tati’s concentration is indeed quite remarkable.

The music and different sound effects are used only as decoration. Some of the very best gags, for example, have Tati mumbling something while his body does all of the meaningful talking. He spins, jumps, runs, and gestures in ways that allow the viewer to figure out exactly what is on his mind.

The small portions of the film where the postman is missing are notably slower and feel like extracts from a documentary feature about life in rural France. Occasionally either a narrator or a secondary character would quickly describe what is taking place in front of the camera. As soon as the postman reappears, the tempo picks up again.

Tati shot Jour de fete in 1949. Initially, it was meant to use the new Thomsoncolor process and thus become the first French color film. However, well aware of the risks the process involved, Tati also shot Jour de fete with a second camera, in black and white. The black-and-white version of the film was the one that premiered in 1949.

Criterion's Blu-ray release of Jour de fete has three versions of the film: the original 1949 black-and-white version, which runs at approximately 87 minutes (01.27.19), the alternative 1964 version which features hand-painted color sequences and newly incorporated footage, running at approximately 80 minutes (01.20.31), and a 1995 full-color version, which runs at approximately 80 minutes (01.20.15). The StudioCanal presentation of the 1995 version runs at approximately 77 minutes (01.16.37), but the difference comes from the different conversion methods (PAL/NTSC and upscaling).

Jour de fête Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's Blu-ray release of release of Jacques Tati's Jour de fete has three versions of the film: the original 1949 black-and-white version, the alternative 1964 version which features hand-painted color sequences and newly incorporated footage, and a 1995 full-color version*. All three versions are granted new MPEG-4 AVC 1080p transfers, but the 1995 version comes from a standard-definition source (upscaled).

The screencaptures included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-13: Version 1949 (01.27.19).
2. Screencaptures #15-22: Version 1964 (01.20.31).
3. Screencaptures #23-30: Version 1995 (01.20.15).

The 1949 version of Jour de fete is sourced from the same recent restoration which StudioCanal accessed for their release of the film in France and the United Kingdom. Needless to say, the presentation is wonderful. Generally speaking, clarity is very good. The are areas of the film with some minor depth and contrast fluctuations, but it is very easy to tell that these are inherited limitations. In these particular areas different optimizations have been performed to rebalance the image as best as possible. There are no traces of problematic degraining and sharpening corrections. Rather predictably, grain is present throughout the entire film and well resolved. Some minor fluctuations exist -- which are also inherited -- but the film does have a solid organic appearance. Overall image stability is very good.

Criterion's presentation of the 1964 version of Jour de fete is virtually identical to StudioCanal's, which means that it looks vastly superior next to BFI's presentation of the same version. Not only are depth and clarity far better, but the entire film looks notably healthier -- scratches, damage marks, cuts, debris, and dirt have been carefully removed. Also, overall image stability is dramatically improved. To be perfectly clear, the shakiness and edge flicker from the BFI release are completely eliminated. The hand-painted color sequences appear more vibrant and better balanced as well (see screencaptures # 18, 19, 20, 21, 22). There are a few areas of the film where some minor contrast fluctuations still exist, but they are inherited. All in all, the new restoration of the 1964 version is very good and the film clearly looks the best it ever has.

The 1995 full-color version of Jour de fete is presented in 1080p -- on the Region-B release from StudioCanal it is presented in 1080i -- but it comes from the same standard definition source, which means that it is upscaled. Rather predictably, it looks quite poor.

Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

*On the StudioCanal release, this version is referred to as the 1994 version. It is the same 1995 version of the film presented here (only the years are exchanged). There are some minor discrepancies between the running times of the three versions on the Criterion and StudioCanal releases. However, these discrepancies are caused by the different conversion methods (PAL/NTSC and upscaling) for the 1995 version and the inclusion of different logos and credits for the 1949 and 1964 versions.

Jour de fête Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 1.0 for the 1949 version, French Dolby Digital 1.0 for the 1964 version, and French Dolby Digital 1.0 for the 1995 version. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English subtitles for each version.

Version 1949: The biggest improvements are in terms of clarity and stability. As I mentioned in our review of the Region-B release, it appears that some very specific stabilization improvements were performed because overall balance is very good. This is definitely not the case with previous presentations of the 1949 version that I have seen. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions.

Version 1964: Despite the fact that there is only a lossy track for this version of the film, depth and clarity are definitely not compromised. Even with the lossless track on the StudioCanal release, the slight discrepancy in terms of dynamic intensity is rather difficult to recognize.

Version 1995: Clarity and depth are good. Also, there is no problematic background hiss, pops, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.

Jour de fête Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The 1964 Version - presented here is the 1964 version of Jour de fete. For technical details, please see the video section of our review.

• The 1995 Version - presented here is the 1995 version of Jour de fete. For technical details, please see the video section of our review.

• "Jour de fete: In Search of the Lost Color" - presented here is an episode of the French television program Cinema cinemas which focuses on the discovery of the original color negative and reconstruction of Jacques Tati's Jour de fete. Included in the episode are interviews with the French director's daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, producer Fred Orain, cinematographer Jacques Mercanton, and head engineer at Thomson Mario Solima, as well as plenty of archival stills, photographs, and raw footage from the shooting of the film. Produced by Claude Ventura and Francois Ede, the episode aired on February 28, 1988. In French, with optional English subtitles. (31 min, 1080p).

• L'Americaine - presented here is a fantastic visual analysis of Jacques Tati's Jour de fete by Stephane Goudet. There is an abundance of information in it about the film's interesting production history, the different versions of the film and the key differences between them, the origin of a number of gags (which came from Jacques Tati's short films), some of the reoccurring political overtones in the French director's firms, etc. The essay also appeared on StudioCanal's release of Jour de fete. In French, with optional English subtitles. (81 min, 1080p).

• Booklet - a booklet featuring essays by critics David Cairns, James Quandt, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Kristin Ross. (Please note that the booklet is included inside the box set).

Jour de fête Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release of Jacques Tati's Jour de fete uses the same recent restorations of the film which were initially introduced by StudioCanal in France and the United Kingdom. Needless to say, the 1949 and 1964 versions look fantastic. Also included on this release is Stephane Goudet's excellent documentary L'Americaine, as well as a truly illuminating episode of the French television program Cinema cinemas. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.