The film:

Polidor, threatened with accusation and arrest by some hardened creditors, decides to commit suicide. However, a series of obstacles will prevent the extreme action. After many rescues, during an umpteenth attempt, Polidor tries to reach the roof of a building, but distracted by his curiosity, he won’t be able to stop spying the residents in their apartments on all the floors. Finally, after reaching the top floor, a robust lady will tempt Polidor with the attractive offer to divide the money she has just won at the lottery and will make him give in his suicide purposes.   

The funny side of Ferdinand Guillame is often black-tinted. In this case, for example, the absurd happy ending can’t deactivate the anxiety of a comic mechanism constructed on an death impulse as resolute as ineffective. The film develops the typical structure of the “keyhole film”, a very common genre of the beginnings. The protagonist, together with the audience, spies the other characters and  addresses to the movie camera the gestures and the expressions designed to comment what it’s just been seen, establishing a sort of voyeuristic complicity with the public. 

The film restoration:

The preservation of Polidor vuol suicidarsi was carried out by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, and it was based on a tinted nitrate print with Italian intertitles conserved in the Museum collection.

The work preservation was carried out at the ANIM - Cinemateca Portuguesa laboratory in 2008.

Link Vimeo Cineteca MNC:

https://vimeo.com/88765420

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