"Jour de fete" Future Film - Color vs. Black and white

(aka "The Big Day" or "Holiday")

directed by Jacques Tati
France 1949

I had the opportunity to se the color version of this film for the first time. There is nothing in resent film history, that give me as much, as "Jour de fete". It's not simply a comedy from one of the genius in the film history - but much more. Today the prints condition is quite poor with vanishing colors of life and people in a small French village. Some directors need three hours of murders and death to make a similar kaleidoscope of life, but Tati manages in a very short time to paint a rich background for many individuals desires and dreams.

Tati shot this film in Thomson Color, and it was due to be the first color film in France. Because the process was experimental Tati made the shooting with two cameras, in the other he loaded a B&W safety copy. At the time they couldn't process the color material,

and Tati released the B&W copy in 1949. However Tati was never really satisfied with the B&W version of the film. In 1964 he re-released a new version of it. He re-shot new material, with a painter coming to the village, and re-edited the film. Tati colored by hand himself many details in this version (flags etc), and it's the version most people have seen over the past. The new material was very skillfully edited, and it fit very well to the old material. When I say the new color version I can only say, that it is an entirely other movie! Many scenes are different, and the story with the painter no longer exists, and there are scenes in the color version that are missing from the B&W 1964 version.

Per-Olof Strandberg

Posters

Theatrical Release: May 4th, 1949 - France

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DVD Comparison:

Future Film (Finland) - Region 2 - PAL (Color) vs. Future Film (Finland) - Region 2 - PAL (black + white version)

Big thanks to Per-Olof Strandberg for all the screen captures!

(Future Films - color version - LEFT vs. Future Films black and white version - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers (Boxset
Distribution	Future Film (Finland) Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:16:33 (including introduction to the color version 00:55)	1:15:47
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Future Film (Finland) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 DVD Release Date: November, 2003 Keep Case Chapters 16	Release Information: Studio: Future Film (Finland) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 DVD Release Date: November, 2003 Keep Case Chapters 5
	Extras: Jacques Tati short films: Soigne Ton Gauche (1936) (11:53) L'Ecole des Facteurs (1947) (14:25) Cours du Soir (1967) (26:30) Jacques Tati biography (9 page in English) Also available in a box set including Playtime, Jour de Féte, Mon Oncle, Les Vacances de M. Huolot and Trafic.

Comments:

Picture:

I have no comparison whatsoever for this film! It's the first time I saw it, and the only material I have is this DVD. When Criterion comes with their print we can look at this again.

But this Nordic print I have looks fairly good. The image looks sharp. and similar to a film-copy. I'm very satisfied with it! The colors! Yes, the colors adhere to the following:

a) some material looks like taken from a color negative and have wonderful old colors, like the first color photographs taken.

b) some material looks like they are taken from the B&W negative and are digitally colored (looks like some Turner colored classics, but with that difference, that this film is shot in color, and

c) some sequences are left B&W (night shots etc). Overall I found the picture quality good!

The sequences in the color version are not always the same than in the B&W edition. Some scenes are angled differently, and some takes are not identical to the B&W (peoples arms and gesture are not exactly the same).

The B&W edition in this disc is unfortunately left in very bad condition, it looks like a VHS cassette. When you understand that it's not the same movie, you feel sorry for that they didn't also restore the 1964 version of the film.

Sound:

I don't understand how they manage to make new audio for this film. It sounds incredible good. The sound is dynamic and the music score sounds as if it was recorded yesterday. There is no noise, scratches or popping whatsoever in the sound. Just fantastic! I wonder if there has been any new sound tracks made for this edition.

The B&W is left un-restored and sounds narrow and bad!

Extras:

This edition has the same extras that the other nordic disc's. The short film L'ecole des facteurs (1947) is in some way the first draft for this movie, but otherwise I miss more information than the short introduction for the color version. This is a very exciting pice of film history, a short film and three versions, the last after Tatis death.

Overall:

We can start to count the days for the Criterion disc to be released. I can promise, in my case, that it will be one of the top three disc's for 2004. I'm so happy to have this film. It didn't only get pleasure for 77 minutes, it will stay with me for the entire year, and probably also the coming years!

Per-Olof Strandberg

Recommended Reading in French Cinema (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)


The Films in My Life by Francois Truffaut, Leonard Mayhew	French Cinema: A Student's Guide by Philip Powrie, Keith Reader	Agnes Varda by Alison Smith	Godard on Godard : Critical Writings by Jean-Luc Godard	Notes on the Cinematographer by Robert Bresson	Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2) by James Quandt	The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau	French New Wave by Jean Douchet, Robert Bonnono, Cedric Anger, Robert Bononno	French Cinema: From Its Beginnings to the Present by Remi Fournier Lanzoni	Truffaut: A Biography by Antoine do Baecque and Serge Toubiana

Check out more in "The Library"

NOTE on DVD:

Until Sophie Tatischeff's and François Ede's color restoration of "Jour de fête", the film existed only in black and white.
A few details, such as banners and lanterns, were colored personally by Jacques Tati. This is the version in question.
Due to the poor availability of material, some defects do exits in this version, and we ask you to accept our apologies for such. In spite of that this version is part of the long history of "Jour de fête".

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(Future Films - color version - LEFT vs. Future Films black and white version - RIGHT)

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