Le Maître du temps

Pollet and Schlöndorff imagine the Mediterranean as a supernal arena.

A man who lives by himself becomes increasingly concerned that he is not alone. Based on the short story by Guy de Maupassant.

"I was interested by the fact that some old guy, after the Parthenon’s glamour, devoted himself in a much smaller temple, where there was no white marble, no nothing. All Greek temples are dedicated to Apollo etc, and this particular one was not dedicated to anyone and is in a place where there never was a city nearby, in a kind of wasteland, in a ditch. But, just by going up a bit –you are in the centre of Peloponissos- on a clear day, you can see the sea on both your left and right. I went back there, at least six, seven or eight times, as if I wanted to think or find myself. So, at the temple in Bassae, I made a short 10 minute film and I was lucky enough to encounter two days of clouds and mist between the columns." —ecofilms.gr (Jean-Daniel Pollet, Tours d’horizons, Editions de l’oeil 2005)

A cinematographic poem in the form of variations around the theme of Robinson, a utopian fable freely inspired by Daniel Defoe's novel, which speaks above all of solitude: the immense weakness of today's man in the face of loneliness is no longer that of the hero of the eighteenth century.

Père Lachaise cemetery reflects the socio-economic hierarchy of French society during the second half of the 19th century. The film pays homage to the Communards who were shot and whose simple commemorative gravestone contrasts with the insolence of the monuments of the great bourgeois families.

Pedro returns to the castle of his childhood, inhabited by his uncle, an indifferent being who scarcely notices his presence. At the castle, Pedro wanders between the park and the salons, playing the songs he composed on the guitar. He notices strange people around the castle.

An apocalyptic vision of man after a cosmic catastrophe, this film is a terrifying metaphor of a dehumanized future. The Brazilian Cinema Novo, German expressionism of the twenties, and the ideologically motivated ‘cruelty’ of a Buñuel come together in this ferocious work of a French theatre collective – an ambitious, almost completely successful example of visual cinema at its best.

He inhabits the world just like he inhabits his house: motionless. A serious accident nailed him there: in a house in the middle of a large garden. No longer can he dash around the world: day after day, he contemplates it from his house. He’s a filmmaker. He’s only ever lived to make movies.

Jean Daniel Pollet’ was 22 when he made his debut short movie, "Pourvu qu’on ait l’ivresse" in 1957. It is a study of loneliness set in the dance hall of suburban Paris in the 50's starring Claude Melki, a young unknown non-actor whom Pollet discovered and who would become the director’s acteur fétiche. Melki was also the central charcter in Gala which was filmed 3 years later. - TOFU magazine

Leon who works as a bathhouse attendant discovers a passion for the tango that will change his life. He falls in love with Fumée, a young and pretty prostitute who becomes his partner in tango contests.