Although Danish director Carl Theodore Dreyer had mastered both silent and sound cinema, his failure to attract viewers and recoup investments inaugurated a fallow period during which he’d complete only three feature films over his final 36 years.

fallow (adj) 1: left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season; 2: undeveloped but potentially useful; (n) : cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons – source: Slowpoke directors