Review of Cul-de-sac (1966) by Annetta K — 15 Sep 2011

One of the most insane, entertaining, engaging and addictive movies I've ever seen, an unsung masterpiece by a director who has made quite a few. This is Roman Polanski at his purest and most unrestrained, and the result is a work of art that is both beautiful in its daring interrogation of mankind and disturbing in its violent implications.

Since its release, critics have had a tough time deciding whether it is a comedy or a horror movie; at its best it is both. The three biggest reasons to see the film are its three central actors all of whom bare it all and give themselves over to the unfocused zaniness of the story.

Donald Pleasence, who is most famous probably for his role in John Carpenter's 'Halloween', gives one of the best performances I've ever seen here as the movie's centerpiece, a fragile man set on the edge by his freewheeling and promiscuous wife (Francoise Dorleac, sister of Catherine Deneuve, star of Polanski's earlier film on sexual repression 'Repulsion') and the gangster who holds him hostage in his own home (the one-of-a-kind Lionel Stander, who lends the film its most wickedly funny moments).

This threesome engages in a series of chaotic deviancies which generally involve humiliation, intoxication, lies and violence, and the result is sublime and shocking black comedy that's impossible to look away from.