While I feel that a knowledge of Tati's entire oeuvre would be necessary to comment appropriately on his genius for physical comedy, this short is a fine introduction to the hallmarks of his style.
His gift for physical comedy is underscored by an understanding of the nuance and rhythm of motion, and how it portrays character. Underneath it all is his unfailing warmth for the beauty and simplicity of the human community -- at least the community where our familiarity with our neighbors carries the sweetness and lyricism so lost in the icy excess of the modern...and post-modern.
The scene where he enters a cafe and dances to jazz music, along with a few other couples who happen to be in the cafe, is masterful. The postman's joy in dance, in motion, and, most of all, in the spontaneous, is the stuff of genius.
What's more, it's great entertainment.
You may also marvel and wonder at just how he technically accomplished the shots of the postman's bicycle riding itself. My opinion is that Tati was a remarkable artist and the 20th century was graced by his presence beyond its merit.
Tati did more in less than half an hour here than most film artists will accomplish in their career.
His gift for physical comedy is underscored by an understanding of the nuance and rhythm of motion, and how it portrays character. Underneath it all is his unfailing warmth for the beauty and simplicity of the human community -- at least the community where our familiarity with our neighbors carries the sweetness and lyricism so lost in the icy excess of the modern...and post-modern.
The scene where he enters a cafe and dances to jazz music, along with a few other couples who happen to be in the cafe, is masterful. The postman's joy in dance, in motion, and, most of all, in the spontaneous, is the stuff of genius.
What's more, it's great entertainment.
You may also marvel and wonder at just how he technically accomplished the shots of the postman's bicycle riding itself. My opinion is that Tati was a remarkable artist and the 20th century was graced by his presence beyond its merit.
Tati did more in less than half an hour here than most film artists will accomplish in their career.