Cul-de-sac (1966)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Roman Polanski

Writers:

Gérard Brach (writer)
Roman Polanski (writer)

Release Date:

7 November 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A wounded criminal and his dying partner take refuge at a beachfront castle. The owners of the castle...

Plot Keywords:

Racial Slur | Eccentric | Coward | Unexpected Guests | Murder

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win

Cast

Donald Pleasence	...	George
Françoise Dorléac	...	Teresa
Lionel Stander	...	Richard
Jack MacGowran	...	Albie
Iain Quarrier	...	Christopher
Geoffrey Sumner	...	Christopher's Father
Renee Houston	...	Christopher's Mother
Robert Dorning	...	Philip Fairweather
Marie Kean	...	Marion Fairweather
William Franklyn	...	Cecil
Jacqueline Bisset	...	Jacqueline (as Jackie Bisset)
Trevor Delaney	...	Nicholas

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (re-release) | UK:15 | West Germany:16 (bw)

Filming Locations:

Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland, England, UK

Company:

Compton Films

Trivia:

Jack Nicholson claimed in an interview in 2007 that this is his favorite film.

Quotes:

Nicholas: [after being punished for scratching one of Teresa's records] That Froggy bitch pulled my ear off!
Philip Fairweather: Here, here, here! Who taught you to speak like that?
Nicholas: Mum did!
Philip Fairweather: [slaps the back of Nicholas's hand] That'll teach you to tell lies.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chinatown: The Beginning and the End (2007) (V)

The dead end kids...

Bored bourgeois dilettante and his bored faux-bohemian wife live out their empty, aristocratic dreams in an isolated castle full of chickens. Chickens for life. Chickens at life. Chickens for eggs. Roosters without purpose, without worker-hens to do their dirty work; the trash piles up. The empty wife is at constant sexual readiness; but she's disappointed with the game and its players. Excitement is desired. And then in walk the criminal element, proletarian in taste, practical in nature. What a mix! There is even a visit to the castle on the hill by other bored bourgeois acquaintances, to punch up the empty, cold idiocy of the scene. And the prolo-crims, loyal to their patriarchal boss, wait to for rescue, for their Godot. But there is no more honour amongst thieves than there is amongst bourgeois and all round, disappointment reigns to the rat-tahtat-tat of gunfire and death. In the end, one betrayal is as good as another and the ultimate alienation which is the product of a narrow, individualistic lifesyle is left to howl in its usual shriveled, muted manner.