Jacques Tati in "Jour de Fete"

This year is the centenary of the birth of Laurence Olivier and John Wayne, but let us not forget another cinema great who -- for those who love him -- did every bit as much to brighten our lives. Jacques Tatischeff wisely chopped off the second half of his surname when he became a music-hall act in pre-war Paris. After the war he had a vision of transferring his talents to celluloid, and set about what was to be France's first ever colour feature -- "Jour de Fete" or The Big Day. It was made 60 years ago this summer in the painfully lovely village of Sainte-Severe-sur-Indre, which I would urge the world to go and visit but for the knowledge that it would thereby be automatically ruined. Tati (for it is he) played the postman Francois, who is inspired by a travelling film-show on the wondrous exploits of the US postal service. Determined to emulate the Americans' speed and efficiency, he takes his trusty bike on a helter-skelter race around the village -- ending of course in the duck-pond. The moral is clear -- modernity is fine, but life has its rhythms, and don't muck with them. The same message pervaded Tati's later films "Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot", "Mon Oncle" and "Playtime". If you haven't sampled them, it is well worth it. They are intriguing rather than hilarious. Poignant more than uproarious. But in their way, rather brilliant. Anyway -- I was in Sainte-Severe last week for the 60th anniversary festivities. Several of the children who were extras in the film are still about -- now in their 60s and 70s. They had great memories of the summer of 47 -- a particularly hot one, they said, which was just as well because filming could only take place when the sun was out. I also met a wonderful chap called Andre Pierdel, the last survivor of Tati's inner circle. Now aged 85, he is a diminutive magician: almost a dwarf but not quite, he was performing on the Paris stage in the 1930s! Tati met him in the war -- when they were both holed up near Sainte-Severe -- and then took him on as his master-of-tricks. It was Pierdel who had to devise all the gadgets that feature in Tati's films -- like the bike that goes by itself in "Jour de Fete". What a guy.