Claude Melki

A bicycle race is held every year in a pass of the Alps called Parpaillon. With the energy of a skillful cyclist perhaps as a great tribute to François, the mailman played by Tati in The Big Day, Moullet makes a comedy by pedaling at a pace that allows him to reinvent the possibilities of film gags. La Cabale des oursins is a guided tour to the northern France, transformed into a Geography lesson in the pataphysical style of an Alfred Jarry disciple.

As a rereading of his films, "Contretemps" (in the fight against time), Jean-Daniel Pollet brings together excerpts of his films and a report by Jean Baronnet. The author Philippe Sollers and philosopher Julia Kristeva voice their thoughts.

Without warning, Mélie disembarks on the cargo ship where her father has the sailor's blues. He remembers his drifts and his friend Max who used to get him into some crazy situations. He remembers Alice and Luc whom he decided to avenge. He has his grenade ready. But Melie has just arrived.

Fred, a raffish safe blower, takes refuge in the Paris Metro after being chased by the henchmen of a shady businessman from whom he has just stolen some documents. While hiding out in the back rooms and conduits of the Metro, Fred encounters a subterranean society of eccentric characters and petty criminals.

Gaby is happy. After eighteen years of work, he is a flourishing mechanist. But one day, the mechanic of his life is out of order. He discovers that his assistant is in love with his wife. This one runs away with her daughter in law. So, Gaby's friends imagine a gambit to find them, at the moment where father and son enjoy pleasures of single life.

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.

Gilles, who operates a money losing garage, teams up with his friends Max, who operates a scrap yard, and lawyer Xavier to open a brothel catering to women. They get the idea from Gilles' secretary Irma, a former prostitute. They are assisted in the implementation by Max's wife Juliette and Sabine who is mad for Gilles. Unfortunately Gilles has fallen for Florence the daughter of the conservative Prime Minister and his wife. When the Prime Minister tries to shut down the brothel Gilles decides to stand against him in the election.

The young artist Wanda Leibovitz comes to Paris, hoping to forget unfortunate love. Soon after arrival directly at the station Wanda meets the mysterious old woman suggesting to rent at it the room (whom the old woman, allegedly, held ready for the now deceased sister). Wanda doesn't know yet that this room will change all her life shortly after it slightly opens a mysterious forbidden door.

Marco Mazzetti, a driving instructor, lives with his wife Irène and their young child. After a series of dizzy spells, he goes to the doctor and discovers that he is four-month pregnant. Marco then becomes internationally famous...

In this French crime caper film, a young misfit (Jacques Higelin) who has grown tired of his job as a bank teller deliberately gets fired. When some underworld characters ask him to share the layout of the bank so that they can more effectively rob it, he does. He also joins in the robbery. But when members of the gang start shooting at one another, it becomes clear that he is definitely in over his head.

A short film by Jean Douchet

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.

In a cul-de-sac in the Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, Leon shares two rooms with his sister Marie. In one, he receives his clients: he is a tailor. In the other, Marie receives her own: she is a clairvoyant. Leon was happy until he learned what Marie was hiding from him. She is actually a prostitute, and Maxime, her supposed fiancé, is her pimp. On the same day, Leon also discovers love in the form of Arlette, a provincial young woman picked up by Marie.

Former professor of natural history, Louis Compiegne lives in retirement in a big house, with Pascal, his faithful servant. The arrival of a young American student comes to disorder the quiet life of the pensioner.

A U.S. Treasury Department agent is sent to Morocco to find a fortune in counterfeit money hidden by the Nazis during World War II. The agent escapes from prison with the only man who knows the location of the bogus bills. The duo is shadowed by a group of former Nazi soldiers who hope they will lead them to recover the lost loot. The feature plays as a crime drama with overtones of international espionage.

A young man who lives with his aunt falls for a free-spirited German model in this uninspired drama. Although he runs off with her for the summer, he returns to his aunt to live off her money after the model and an old flame rekindle their romance. The story unfolds in a series of flashbacks.

Episodes in the lives of two country girls at school in Paris and their opinions.

André is a loser. He dreams of becoming a great writer and being sought after by wonderful women. To make something interesting happen in his life he visits political meetings.

Six vignettes set in different sections of Paris, by six directors. St. Germain des Pres (Douchet), Gare du Nord (Rouch), Rue St. Denis (Pollet), and Montparnasse et Levallois (Godard) are stories of love, flirtation and prostitution; Place d'Etoile (Rohmer) concerns a haberdasher and his umbrella; and La Muette (Chabrol), a bourgeois family and earplugs.

Gala (1961), a more polished version of Pourvu, set in a black cha-cha nightclub. Relying more upon looks, faces, and unease, rather than gags or dialogue, Pollet sets the cool elegance of the club's manager against the decidedly uncool Melki and his sartorial inadequacies. - Village Voice

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.

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