L’École des facteurs (1947) - film review

In his office, the chief postman of a French rural community puts three junior postmen through a course of intensive training.  The aim is to reduce the time of their postal round so that they can catch the airmail plane on time.  In the classroom, François may be the star pupil, but when he gets back to his daily round, countless obstacles prevent him from succeeding in his mission...

Although massively overshadowed by Jacques Tati’s subsequent works, L’École des facteurs merits consideration as a small comic masterpiece in its own right.   Replete with visual jokes (many of which are as fresh as funny as they were when the film was made), it ought to be ranked along side the silent slapstick classics of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton which clearly influenced Tati in making the film.

Amongst the many unforgettable comic situations, one favourite is the scene where Tati (as François the postman) gets separated from his bicycle and the latter carries on regardless, with the postman running along behind.  Tati’s confrontation with a time-wasting level-crossing is equally memorable.

L’École des facteurs was such a success that Tati re-made it the following year as Jour de fête , adding additional material to make this his first full-length film.

© James Travers 2002

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