Short Film Review One: The School for Postmen (L'École des facteurs)

 

Short Film Review:

The School for Postmen (1947) | Dir: Jacques Tati | Genre: Comedy | Run Time: 16 mins

The School for Postmen follows an unnamed French trainee postman (Jacques Tati) as he goes about his new daily postal duties in a rural French village, it’s really that simple and that’s why it works. French slapstick auteur Jacques Tati is most well-known for his large-scale, satirical and colourful slapstick worlds in works such as Playtime (1967), Mon Oncle (1958) & Traffic (1971). Whilst here we see a Tati still starting to discover who he is and what he does.

The film is essentially the early version of what would become his first feature film Jour de fête (1949). A film which fleshes out the postman character more and actually gives him a name, François. The feature also follows a lengthier main plot centred on a fair happening in the village which has an alluring influence on François resulting in a hilarious and frantic finale.

I was first turned onto Tati’s work in year 10 of secondary school by my English teacher Neil who for some reason I cannot remember why began to talk about Tati’s well known hyper exaggerated sound effects, he recommended that I watched his film Playtime and pointed me towards the scene where Tati’s character in the film Mr Hulot is in a waiting room sitting on various air filled leather chairs that produce odd comedic sounds.

No matter what I say I don’t think I could replicate the way in which Neil sold this scene to me so well, he could literally sell ice to the eskimo’s, he’s that good. I then went onto view the full feature of Playtime and was utterly transfixed by its constant visual gags, colourful finale and expertly choreographed sequences. I knew from that one viewing that Tati was the kind of director I would love, probably a month or so later I forked out a ridiculous amount of money and bought The Jacques Tati Essential Boxset, which contained Playtime and his five other films, as well as most of his salvaged short films.

Having completed watching through most of Tati’s filmography (at this point I still have not yet seen Traffic or Parade) I decided to delve into his shorts and found out about The School For Postmen and how it was the precursor of what became Jour De Fete. Jour De Fete in my opinion is still an overall fun, clever and hilarious time but also loses it’s a way a little bit sometimes and lacks the scope of what Tati would later go on to achieve.

So with the short most likely being scaled even further back, I had apprehensions that it may not have been able to hold my attention as well as the film did. However, the fact that The School For Postmen is scaled back even further actually works to its advantage and makes it a nice easy watch. Which is interesting as the whole appeal of Tati’s work is to overstimulate and get lost in the massive painting he’s created in front of you.

Early forms of some of the gags from Jour De Fete turn up in here such as the letter being posted in between the cow’s tail, the postman’s bike getting stuck on the rail crossing and the visit to the church bell ringer. Whilst these moments lack Tati’s trademark exaggerated sound design, they still get a laugh out of you which I think is due to the more simplistic framing as well. Even the simple story of the postman trying to get all his work done as quickly as possible is effective and fits the characters easy going goals, to get his work done, have a mooch and get a drink at the bar. It’s all very bare bones here, the simplicity works.

Tati’s central performance may not be as whacky as Francois from Jour De Fete but that really makes the character more sympathetic, he’s a lot less dim-witted and strange. If anything, the most bizarre character here is the teacher at the school from the start of the film or maybe the brief appearance of the old woman in the bell tower who is quite clearly an elderly man. It’s probably quite hard to persuade an old woman to be violently pulled up in the air by a rope though.

There are a few noticeable mistakes here and there, such as the multiple messily stitched together takes of Tati trying to hook his post bag to the plane near the end of the film and Tati clearly not being able to grab onto the truck at the start of the film which resulted in him being placed in front of a projection of the rear end of the truck holding onto it in the final product. But these were the early days of filmmaking and it’s very easy to forgive the errors displayed here.

If you are a fan of Tati or early slapstick comedy in general this is worth a watch, although I would recommend Playtime as the best option for a watch for first time Tati viewers. Its simplicity is not a hindrance, but rather a tool.

4.5/5 Watched on "Jacques Tati: The Short Films Blu-Ray".