Cul-de-Sac (1966) - Edge-of-the-world island tale meanders at times, but is ultimately a winner

♥♥♥♥

Original Italian poster for Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac

QUICK REVIEW:

Two criminals in a car stall, both wounded by shots. One of them heads off and SPOILER finds a castle, but when he returns to the car, it is sinking in the tide. Soon his companion dies, and help never arrives.

Cul-de-Sac is a darkly humorous, absurd crime-dramedy with societal sting, which runs on a highly unusual and original plot thought up by Gérard Brach (The Name of the Rose (1986)) and its master director Roman Polanski (The Tenant (1976)), who made this as his third feature after a string of shorts. It is infused with a youthful freshness and an infectious experimental joy. It is also clear that Polanski was in a learning process at the time, because the film contains some mistakes which he wouldn't make just a little later in his formidable career. - Cul-de-Sac, which runs 112 minutes, could have been a bit tighter.
Bearish Lionel Stander (A Star Is Born (1937)) is fabulous as Dickie. Cul-de-Sac is a treat for anyone interested in Polanski or psychedelic wild-films. Some of what Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man (1995)) would go on to make decades later are reminiscent of this film, which also - quite in lieu with its time - criticizes the bourgeois.
The island where the film was shot is Lindisfarme aka. Holy Island off Northumberland, England, and the building and land can be toured today and reportedly still appears largely unchanged since the shoot.

Related reviews:

Roman Polanski: The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work 
Chinatown (1974) - Polanski's masterpiece 

Francoise Dorleac and Lionel Stander in Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac

German poster for Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac. The German title, Wenn Katelbach Kommt, [When Katelbach Comes] refers to the gangster boss (SPOILER who never comes)

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 120,000 £
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[While I can find nothing on the film's commercial life, Cul-de-Sac did win the Gold Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and its cinematographer Gilbert Taylor (The Omen (1976)) was also nominated for a BAFTA for his job on it.]

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