Cul-de-sac (1966)
Directed by Roman Polanski

Film Review

Roman Polanski followed up his startlingly expressionistic psycho-thriller Repulsion (1965) with this equally individualistic comedy thriller, which is effectively the Humphrey Bogart film The Desperate Hours (1955) remade in the manner of a Samuel Beckett or Harold Pinter Theatre of the Absurd play.  Polanski's second English language film, Cul-de-sac divided the critics and was not a great commercial success but it was awarded the coveted Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1966.  It may not be Polanski's greatest film, but it does perhaps reveal more about the man who made it than most of his subsequent work and is strangely prescient of the director's own life.

The Island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria is an appropriate setting for this bleakly comedic thriller, the barren coastal landscape reflecting the sterile and confined lives of the three protagonists.  George has given up everything he possessed to buy the island retreat, thinking it a piece of paradise whereas in fact it is merely a prison.  Theresa is trapped in a loveless marriage and her only relief is the perverse pleasure she takes in tormenting her husband.   Meanwhile, Dickie, the hoodlum, has literally reached the end of the road, left out to dry by a gangster boss who has taken him off the payroll for good.  The island on which these three miserable wretches are brought together seems to shrink in the course of the film, becoming chillingly claustrophobic when it becomes apparent that there is no escape for any of them.

This was not an easy film to make.  Roman Polanski's perfectionism and lack of tact created tensions with his cast and crew that very nearly brought the production to a halt.  Polanski had a particularly bad working relationship with his three lead actors, who in turn found him very unsympathetic to work for.  In spite of this - or perhaps because of it - the three leads turn in some of the best performances of their respective careers.  Donald Pleasence and Lionel Stander are at times outrageously over the top and yet never cease to be utterly convincing, even when the former is frolicking about in a frilly nightgown and the latter playing the comedy gangster for all it's worth.  French film star Françoise Dorléac (the sister of Catherine Deneuve, the star of Repulsion) is perfect as the alluring nymphomaniac wife who takes a sadistic delight in manipulating the men in her ambit.  This was one of Dorléac's last screen appearances before her tragic death in a car accident, less than two years after she made this film.

Cul-de-sac combines some brilliant artistic touches (not least of which is Gilbert Taylor's arresting film noir style cinematography) with Polanki's trademark lunacy and perverse fascination with the darker side of human experience.  The more times you watch this film, the darker it becomes; what first appears to be playful comedy, almost farce, acquires a much more sinister aspect.   This is a film which is obsessed with showing us the depravity and vile ugliness of human nature.  None of the three main characters in the story has any redeeming features, everyone of them is driven to exploit, taunt and humiliate the others in what is effectively little more than a grotesque sadomasochistic fantasy.   There is a cruel irony in the fact that the grimness and pessimism that we see in Polanksi's early films would manifest itself in the director's own life in later years, sometimes to horrific proportions.  The world of Roman Polanski is a dark, strange place...

Film Synopsis

Two American gangsters, Dickie and Albie, are on the run after a robbery that has gone disastrously awry.  Both men are in a bad way, and Albie needs treatment for a serious gunshot wound he has sustained.  A castle on a barren stretch of coastline in the north-east of England looks like the ideal place to hide out until they are well enough to continue their journey.  The castle is presently home to a retired businessman, George, and his attractive young French wife, Teresa.  The couple have only been together a short time, but already their marriage is failing.  With George out playing with his kite, Teresa amuses herself with the neighbours' son.  Neither George nor his wife puts up any resistance when Dickie shows himself and takes them hostage.  There's nothing that can be done for Albie - he soon dies from his wounds.  Once he has seen to the burial of his friend, Dickie continues to taunt his hostages as he waits for his gangster associates to come and collect him.  It is at this tense moment that a party of friends shows up at the castle unexpectedly.  George knows all too well what will happen if he so much as hints at the predicament he and his wife are in.  Dickie is armed and he is not in a forgiving mood...