This was the first feature film made by Jacques Tati, and also my least favorite. Each film of his got progressively better in my opinion, and then after Playtime he dropped off a little bit with Trafic, and I still haven’t seen his final film Parade. This film felt like a live-action Looney Tunes episode that spread out its 5 minutes of good material into feature length. It didn’t help that the film has been poorly restored and it felt like I was watching an out of focus image for the entire duration of the film. Jacques Tati plays François the postman, the only time that he appears in any of his feature films as a character that isn’t M. Hulot (except for the made-for-TV Parade). There are definitely characteristic similarities between the two, so it was nice to see a character that likely helped spawn the great Hulot.
The film, despite not being very funny or interesting, is still nice to sit through. The score by Jean Yatove is great to listen to and has the distinct characteristics of every Tati score. The film also feels like it is stuck in limbo between two eras of filmmaking. It carries much of the physical acting and humor that defined the silent era, while still utilizing, though in a very elementary way, talking and synced sound effects. The old woman who crawls around the city square with her cane and chirps out commentary on the action around her feels right out of Vampyr; she is terrifying. Also, having been shot on both black & white and color film stock, it is a blatant example of the transition from one format to another. I watched the color version, and it has the feeling of black & white film that has been colorized. It was ugly and hazy, but also somehow relaxing to watch.