Le gros et le maigre

1961 [FRENCH]

Action / Comedy / Music

2
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 1398 1.4K

Plot summary

A small and thin barefoot slave (played by Polanski) plays a flute and beats a drum to entertain his large master who rocks in a rocking chair in front of his mansion. The slave jumps and leaps like a madman, wipes his master's brow, feeds him, washes his feet, shades him from the sun with an umbrella and holds a urinal for him.

Director

Roman Polanski Photo
Roman Polanski

Top cast

Roman Polanski Photo
Roman Polanski as The lean
André Katelbach Photo
André Katelbach as The fat
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
138.08 MB
968*720
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   pl  
23.976 fps
12 hr 15 min
Seeds ...
256.41 MB
1440*1072
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   pl  
23.976 fps
12 hr 15 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bateauivre11

Nature created neither servants nor masters.

Story fat and the lean(1961-14 minutes)A small and thin barefoot slave (played by Polanski) plays a flute and beats a drum to entertain his large master who rocks in a rocking chair in front of his decreped mansion. The slave jumps and leaps like a madman, wipes his master's brow, feeds him, washes his feet, shades him from the sun with an umbrella and holds a urinal for him. Facts The film was made in France, financed by a small French film company. Though it was not a profitable venture for the production company, it was a favorite at cinema clubs. His experience in Polish theatre gave him a lasting love of Absurdism, with its sardonic, existential view of life's futility, and its vicious parodies of the chaotic power games that underpin (and often undermine) social structures. Polanski was not only interested in this kind of personages,he likes the relationship between' the master and the servant' The domineering and the repressed ,as we can see in his short film' The Fat and the Lean' (1961, B&W, 15mins) or in features like Knife in the Water (1962); Cul-de-sac (1966);Dance of the Vampires(1967) etc. (The credits of this film are evasive and mystifying for legal reasons: Polanski, not possessing French citizenship at the time, had to give his editor, Jean-Pierre Rousseau, co-directing credit.)
Reviewed by Horst_In_Translation 4 / 10

Not enough, even for 15 minutes

"Le gros et le maigre" or "The Fat and the Lean" is a French black-and-white film from 55 years ago. It is among the early works of filmmaker Roman Polanski, but not among his first, even if he was not even 30 years old when he made this one. There is no dialogue in here, just music, so you don't need to understand French to watch this one. Polanski also appears as an actor in here, namely as the lean. The guy who plays the fat guy disappeared quickly from making films and is probably not alive anymore today. But Polanski is and he is way into his 80s having led a most successful and controversial life. As for this short film here, it was somewhat fun to see Polanski so effortlessly make a fool of himself while he was in control all the time being the man who made this movie. But this is really not enough in terms of the plot, not even for such a short film. Maybe it would have been fine at 15 minutes. I do not recommend the watch.
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