Roman Polanski's third full-length feature is perhaps his strangest and hardest to define. Supposedly it was a personal project that Polanski and his collaborators had to fight to get on the screen, although perhaps by the time they finally got to make it they had lost some of their enthusiasm, as Cul-de-sac has a somewhat weary feel to it.
Polanski returns here to similar themes as those explored in his previous pictures, and ones he would often return to again, in particular isolation, regret and the breakdown of a fragile social set-up. The central idea appears to be a man's private paradise turning into his personal hell. It's the first of a number of Polanski's films to be set inside a castle (Polanski was massively influenced by Laurence Olivier's Hamlet), but unfortunately his trademark use of claustrophobic space – that feeling that the walls are pressing in – isn't quite up to scratch here. Cul-de-sac is more about the idea of isolation than actually conveying a physical sense of it, like he does fairly well in Repulsion, and expertly in Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant.
What makes Cul-de-sac stand out though is that it also happens to be a kind of comedy. While it isn't quite laugh-a-minute, there are plenty of little gags here and there that are bound to raise the odd chuckle. There is the fact that the gangsters are escaping from the bungled heist in a car stolen from a driving school, some witty dialogue and overall an air of silliness that actually works very well. The comedy actually turns out to be Cul-de-sac's saving grace. The jokes, not to mention the over the top performances by Donald Pleasance, Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran (the biggest names Polanski had worked with thus far) are really what makes this watchable. It's also worth noting that, while it's a completely different film Polanski's next feature, Fearless Vampire Killers, was also his only out-and-out comedy.
Not only is Cul-de-sac Polanski's last feature in black and white, it is also his last avant-garde film. After this he would concentrate on more accessible (and incidentally, more finely crafted) pictures. Nevertheless a picture like Cul-de-sac, much like the films of Werner Herzog contains enough quirkiness and inventiveness to keep it entertaining in spite of its art-house roots.
Polanski returns here to similar themes as those explored in his previous pictures, and ones he would often return to again, in particular isolation, regret and the breakdown of a fragile social set-up. The central idea appears to be a man's private paradise turning into his personal hell. It's the first of a number of Polanski's films to be set inside a castle (Polanski was massively influenced by Laurence Olivier's Hamlet), but unfortunately his trademark use of claustrophobic space – that feeling that the walls are pressing in – isn't quite up to scratch here. Cul-de-sac is more about the idea of isolation than actually conveying a physical sense of it, like he does fairly well in Repulsion, and expertly in Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant.
What makes Cul-de-sac stand out though is that it also happens to be a kind of comedy. While it isn't quite laugh-a-minute, there are plenty of little gags here and there that are bound to raise the odd chuckle. There is the fact that the gangsters are escaping from the bungled heist in a car stolen from a driving school, some witty dialogue and overall an air of silliness that actually works very well. The comedy actually turns out to be Cul-de-sac's saving grace. The jokes, not to mention the over the top performances by Donald Pleasance, Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran (the biggest names Polanski had worked with thus far) are really what makes this watchable. It's also worth noting that, while it's a completely different film Polanski's next feature, Fearless Vampire Killers, was also his only out-and-out comedy.
Not only is Cul-de-sac Polanski's last feature in black and white, it is also his last avant-garde film. After this he would concentrate on more accessible (and incidentally, more finely crafted) pictures. Nevertheless a picture like Cul-de-sac, much like the films of Werner Herzog contains enough quirkiness and inventiveness to keep it entertaining in spite of its art-house roots.