THE BIG DAY by Jacques Tati
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LESSON PLAN THE BIG DAY By Jacques Tati. Created by Azadée Tolooie Translated by Andrew A. Rosado Hartline 1 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. TABLE OF CONTENTS I UNDERSTANDING THE FILM Information about the film……………………………………………………… 3 The director ……...……………………………………………………………… 4 Summary ……...………………………………………………………………… 5 The universe of the film ………………………………………………………... 6 II IN CLASS DISCUSSION: BEFORE THE FILM ………………………….……… 11 Student Worksheet 1: The title of the film ..…….………………...……..…... 12 Teacher Worksheet 1: The title of the film ..…………..…………….…..…... 14 Student Worksheet 2: The movie poster ….……………………………...…. 15 Teacher Worksheet 2: The movie poster …..……………………….…….… 19 Student Worksheet 3: The movie trailer …………………………..…………. 21 Teacher Worksheet 3: The movie trailer ..…………………………….……. 23 Student Worksheet 4: The movie genre …………………………….…........ 25 Teacher Worksheet 4: The movie genre ……….………………………....... 27 III IN CLASS DISCUSSION: AFTER THE FILM ……………………….…………… 28 Student Worksheet 5: Understanding the movie genre …………….....….... 29 Teacher Worksheet 5: Understanding the movie genre ……………………..33 SITOGRAPHY .………………………………………………………………………….. 35 2 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. I UNDERSTANDING THE FILM TECHNICAL FICHE TITLE: JOUR DE FÊTE (THE BIG DAY) YEAR: 1949 COUNTRY: France DURATION: 1 hour 18 minutes BY: Jacques Tati SCRIPT: Jacques Tati and Henri Marquet MUSIC: Jean Yatove CAST: Jacques Tati, Paul Frankeur, Guy Decomble. 3 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. THE DIRECTOR Jacques Tati Born on October 9, 1907, Jacques Tati (born Jacques Tatischeff) decided early in his career, to the discontent of his father, to become a mime and then made six comic short films inspired by the sometimes-acrobatic performances he produced for music hall shows. During the Second World War, he spent a few months in the small village of Saint- Sévère with his friend, Henri Marquet, with whom he wrote the script for a film called L'École des facteur. In 1944, Jacques Tati married Michelle Winter and then, in 1946, he created a production company and recorded L'École des facteur. This is also the year when his daughter Sophie Tatischeff was born. He returned to Saint-Sévère to shoot his first feature film Jour de fête whose main character is a mail carrier. Jour de fête was intended to be the first French feature film in color, but the color print was impossible, consequently the black and white version was presented to the public and was a great success. 4 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. Excerpt of an interview with Jacques Tati: « I had been enlisted by the Germans in 43, then I escaped, and I took refuge in Marembert, which is located six kilometers from Sainte-Sévère. There, to my surprise, because there was the war, but we had the impression that in Sainte-Sévère, we did not notice it at all. It's great to see people who still know how to live. I thought that if one day I would make a film, I would go back and shoot it there. » Enchanted by the beach of Saint-Marc sur Mer, near Saint-Nazaire, he shot Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, a burlesque film that received several awards. He then shot Mon oncle in 1956 which was his first film in color. From 1964 to 1967, Jacques Tati devoted himself to shooting Playtime whose creation was his ruin as the cost of the sets were high. The half-failure of this film forced Jacques Tati to sell his production company in 1974. It was with the help of Swedish television that he was able to shoot his last two films Trafic and Parade. In 1977 he received a César for his work. Weakened due to serious health problems, he died in Paris in 1982. In 2001, his daughter Sophie Tatischeff alongside Jérôme Deschamps, his younger cousin, created the Mon Oncle Film Society. They managed to release a restored color version of The Big Day (Jour de fête). SUMMARY We are in the 40s. The sun rises on a French village. But today is not a day like any other, it's a day of celebration. Performers settle on the village square with carousels, stands and even traveling cinema. François, the village mail carrier who is a bit of a simpleton and clumsy, but very helpful, struggles to somehow do his daily route. His enthusiasm vanishes when he sees a documentary on the avant-garde working style of American mail carriers. When mocked and provoked by the villagers, François decides to prove to them what he is capable of. 5 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. THE FILM’S UNIVERSE AN INSIGHT TO THE UNITED STATES We are in the aftermath of the Liberation, and there are American influences throughout the film. Due to their physical presence, the GI's driving in jeeps recall the historical context of the film, but the American influence is notable. When recording The Big Day, Tati appropriated slapstick humor, a genre that was predominant in the glory days of silent films. He takes advantage of the arrival of the performers to pay homage to another American genre: Westerns. However, it is apparent that we are still in Indre et Loire, and the intrusion of the West in the village square is less of a respectful allusion than it is a pretext for a new series of gags. During the festival, the villagers also have the opportunity to discover another dimension of the United States through a documentary projected under a tent. It shows that the United States is a country of technical progress and speed. This interesting mise en abyme refers to a situation that is still relevant today: as spectators of images (cinema, television), we do not perceive the world that what we are can see, hence the need for teachers to develop attitudes of curiosity among their students by encouraging them to enrich their knowledge through the diversity of their sources. 6 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. Tati's film shows us the pitfall of this limited vision of the United States by trying to adapt forcefully to the speed of the American system, François, the mail carrier upsets the order that maintained normalcy in the entire village so far. This unnatural evolution will lead to a fiasco but allows the artist to deploy a whole range of gags based on the shift. TATI’S COMIC Tati’s comic is essentially based on his observations of everyday life. The event of the arrival of cinema in a small village is an opportunity to show the quiet habits and scan the various characters and their activities. The gags provoked by the mail carrier are all funnier because they have no catastrophic consequences, or at least because they do not appear as such on screen. For example, when François wishes a "happy birthday" to the character who is in mourning, they close the door immediately on his face. Or, when the coffee seller falls from his chair, or when 7 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. François confuses a window with a shooting stand. We have no knowledge of the consequences of his actions and the possibly negative reactions of the characters concerned. The gags are not stretched, so they come as a real surprise. Due to the involuntariness on the part of François, the gags also occur when they are thought to be done (the cake that does not fall, or the garden hose that does nothing for a long time). The comic dynamic of these types of gags makes them change their purpose along the way to achieve a surprising result. The gags are often caused by coming across obstacles: a stepladder, a fence, a hedge, or even the tar on the road. These are the many challenges of François’ frantic race on the road to fame. Tati references the American burlesque a lot by taking up some recurring motifs in this cinematographic tradition such as the driverless vehicles and the policeman at a crossroads. He alludes to the USA with the gag dedicated to the GI's jeep (the musical band adopts at this time a post-war jazz style) or by the "film within a film" such as the report on the American mail carriers brought by performers (in black and white, while the film of Tati was shot in color). 8 Created by Azadée Tolooie. THE BIG DAY. by Jacques Tati. FRANÇOIS, A VERY FRENCH MAIL CARRIER In L’école des facteurs, a short film made two years prior, Jacques Tati already embodied a mail carrier and he takes up in his first feature film many gags that were started in this small first draft. François is a transition character between his first cinematographic essays (his silhouette had already been seen in Soigne ton gauche) and the character of Hulot who will see light of day four years later with Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot. He has the same habit of stammering and the swallowing his words with a lanky pace. These are the same ways to create a comic, not by his personality but by his interaction with the environment. Tati will constantly refine this character that is "too French" to his liking in this film. The mustache and uniform show an everyday Frenchman that is much more in line with the universal reach of the comic created by Tati. Between his first cinematographic essays and The Big Day, Jacques Tati abandons the comic that relies on a frenzy of gestures. He purifies and simplifies them by going to choreographies with very "clear lines" that are much more effective in terms of comedy as in poetry.