Le gros et le maigre

19611961
15min

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 le... Read allA 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 th... Read allA 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.

6.3/10

1.2K

Director
- Roman Polanski
Writer
- Roman Polanski(scénario)
Stars
- André Katelbach(uncredited)
- Roman Polanski(uncredited)

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination

Roman Polanski and André Katelbach in Le gros et le maigre (1961)

Roman Polanski in Le gros et le maigre (1961)

André Katelbach in Le gros et le maigre (1961)

André Katelbach

The fatas The fat
(uncredited)

Roman Polanski

The leanas The lean
(uncredited)

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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. —Anonymous

written and directed by cast member washing someone's feet absurdism slavery france 4 more

Genres
Parents guide
- Add content advisory

Trivia
Roman Polanski directed this fifteen-minute black-and-white short just after completing film school. The film features the music of Krzysztof Komeda, who composed the scores for all but one of the director's films between Dwaj ludzie z szafa (1958) and Rosemary's Baby (1968). (from the Criterion Collection DVD)

Connections
Featured in Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

Top review

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.)

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