Cul-De-Sac (1966)

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Obviously, i like to think myself a cinéaste but i've never seen any Roman Polanski so i thinks it's time.

So today I'll watch Cul De Sac (1966), Polanski's dark comedy 'home invasion' thriller but frankly it's because I need to class up the place here at My 2011 in Movies...

This film literally begins stuck in a rut (It's okay- it's subtext). We encounter 2 criminals, (a thugish American and a wounded Brit) on the run but their car is stuck in the rising sea tide somewhere in coastal northern England. The only people in the area, are an another couple- an older man and his nymph wife who live in this obscure medieval 'pile'. Already we know, this film will be no average 'home invasion' drama. What's great about the narrative in the film is we learn things very gradually, there's no speeches of exposition at the start to explain who these characters are; when introduced, no one explains to another character who they are or what they do because well, it's not very natural is it? 

Like when we meet the man and his wife initially, I thought they were like a weird uncle and his Lilith niece who he might secretly fancy. It's only in the next scene when you see them share the same bedroom, you realise. This sort of storytelling is not for every film but it's Polanski saying, i'm not in any rush and neither are you or you would have left during the first dialogue-free 10mins. Like I say it's not an average 'home invasion' film, like say Panic Room, where criminals trap you in your home-it's just something that's happening here.

When the gruff Yank, first turns up at this Medivial pile- he just sculks around are pawing through their stuff and after making a phone call to get help, pulls out the phone line for when the enevitable happens. And when he does decide to let them know he's in there house, it's like 

'Look- my partner's stuck in the car on the coast, come on! Hop to it. You're helping.' 

'Wait what?! Who are you? Where have you come from?'

'Never mind that, dingus. Come on- we're off out to pull my car outta the tide'

'... No, get outta my house! Why would I help you?'

'Gah-Give me strength-Because I'm a dangerous stranger with a gun, in your house, you div...'

Like i say, this approach isn't gonna work for every film but you get the idea that Polanski is interested in... not undermining the tension in this set-up but changing the tension.The American isn't scary because he constantly making ultimatums but because he's unpredictable- you don't know what he's capable of. So the stage is set for these 3 very different characters- 

The American, who looks and talks like he done a quantum leap from a 1930's Warner Bros gangster movie to Northumberland (?!). 

The young French wife, who's probably more duplicitous then the criminal, who she couldn't be less scared of. She seems just.. just disgusted by everything... in that way, that only the French can do but that makes anyone else look constipated. We wonder what her motivations are since she hates to be close to her husband. What's keeping her there apart from the security he provides? 

And the husband, a spineless intellectual ably played by Donald Pleasence (Blofeld himself.) whose struggling to keep his head above water in this situation but hilariously sometimes will forget and ask this stranger for tips on how to wrangle his woman (?!).

So you really feel yourself watching not because it's tense but just because it's fun and want to see how it plays out for that reason.

I watched Cul-De-Sac (1966) on LoveFilm Online - http://bit.ly/hGoZsb

My 2011 in Movies will return with It's Kind Of A Funny Story (2010)...