A particularly good appearance of a barrel piano is in Jacques Tati's
'Jour de Fete': there is a whole scene where the hapless piano judders
to a halt as everyone is dancing to it, and Tati kicks it in just the
right place to get it going again after others have failed.  The piano
is right at the centre of the scene, a pretty rare occurrence for any
mechanical musical instrument.

The instrument itself looks to be a turn of the century clockwork
instrument, judging by the general appearance of the case.  The film
was shot in Tati's home village, but whether the interiors are real or
studio I don't know.  It all looks very authentic!  The film consciously
pictured a rural France that must have seemed very out of date even at
the time.  It must give a pretty good idea of the sort of use these
instruments got.

This film has recently been re-released in its original colour version.
When shot in 1948 they used an experimental colour process which they
could never print, so safety black-and-white shots (from a different
camera) were used.  Computer technology has made it possible to align
the colours - so the film in its proper version was finally premiered
last summer in London!  It's well worth seeking out in its new form.

Julian Dyer

 [ What's the name of the colour process, Julian?  It sounds similar
 [ to Technicolor.  -- Robbie