An actor by training, Sydney Pollack began his directing career in television in the 1950’s. The major studios were still running the show, but their power was in constant evolution. And it is was with them, not in opposition to the system, that Pollack directed “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969), “The Way We Were” (1973), “Tootsie” (1983) or “Out of Africa” (1986).
Pollack was to become the preferred director of many great actors (Lancaster, Mitchum, Pacino, Newman, Streisand, Streep, Hoffman, etc.) while Robert Redford became his favourite actor, the charismatic antihero of modern America and, in his life, his alter-ego.
In July 2003, as he was preparing his 19th film (with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn), Sydney Pollack granted Harold Manning his longest interview ever. He spoke of his career, the films that marked it, and a lifetime dedicated to a certain type of cinema: made in Hollywood but by a craftsman; popular yet intimate - in the image of his extraordinary “Bobby Deerfield” (1975).
Robert Redford has been Sydney Pollack’s best friend since 1961. In an exceptional interview, he discusses in great detail the creation of their major successes, including “This Property is Condmned” (1966), “Three Days of the Condor” (1975) and, above all, “Jeremiah Johnson” (1972), and compares their collaboration to that of Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. Refdord draws a sensitive portrait of Pollack, sincere and without illusions.
SOMETHING ABOUT SYDNEY POLLACK is above all the story of a friendship - and the shared sadness of two men, almost brothers, driven apart by life and success, despite themselves.