Product Details

• Actors: Donald Pleasence, Lionel Stander, Renee Houston, Marie Kean, Jacqueline Bisset
• Directors: Roman Polanski
• Producers: Cul-de-sac
• Format: PAL
• Language: English
• Region: Region 4 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000A1N87Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,824 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SYNOPSIS: Immediately after the boxoffice success of his macabre masterpiece Repulsion, Roman Polanski returned to a theme he had explored in his early classic Knife in the Water the destruction of a fragile relationship by a maligned outsider. The resulting film was Cul-De-Sac. Donald Pleasence and Francoise Dorleac play a mismatched couple he effeminate and petulant, she sensual and enigmatic who share a bizarre sexual relationship, living in a remote castle. Their very isolation from the world prevents their eccentric partnership from foundering.
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Berlin International Film Festival, ...Cul-de-sac

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Polanski's best underground films, before 'Rosemary's Baby' stardom., January 10, 2008

By 

MJM "[e-mail]" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cul-de-sac [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bizzare, to say the least about two gangsters, one critically wounded, who take to inviting themselves into an even more bizzare couple's castle home. Worthy follow up to Polanski's previous, "Repulsion" - the film that put him on the map for American audiences. Good cast, and hysterical to see a very serious, Donald Pleasence of "Halloween" fame dressed in drag with makeup. Oh, yes this is different...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a delicious showcase for wonderful, quirky acting, May 4, 2007

By 

A. C. Walter "awalter" (Lynnwood, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cul-de-sac [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ] (DVD)

"Cul-de-sac" is Roman Polanski's third feature, after "Knife in
Water" and "Repulsion." The movie was filmed in and around a castle
on the coast of north-east England that is cut off from the mainland
for a portion of every day when the tide changes. Here a pair of
wounded, on-the-run criminals invade the castle and impose
themselves on the slightly-bohemian couple living there. Like all of
Polanski's best films, it truly functions as a showcase for the
actors, and the central cast here is Donald Pleasence, Francoise
Dorleac, and Lionel Stander--a Brit, a Frog, and an American. There's
also a wonderful supporting performance by Irish actor Jack
MacGowran. However, it's Pleasance who steals the show. Like
Polanski's writing and direction here, Pleasance creates a real
tension between realism and delirious mania, thus maintaining a
moment-by-moment unpredictability that you simply can't take your
eyes off. It's one of the mysteries of cinema history why "Cul-de-
sac" has not survived well in the memories of critics nor found a
dedicated audience as have most other early Polanski films.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cul-de-Sac, dead end, in a double sense ..., September 13, 2005

By 

FrizzText "frizz" (Wuppertal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cul-de-sac [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ] (DVD)

Polanski has searched for a long time until he had found at England's East coast "Holy Island", also known as "Lindisfarne". He was looking for an island, which one could reach at low tide, but which was cut off in high tide. He needed such a "Cul-de-Sac" (= dead end) as an ideal location for his story: A bank robber, Dickie (Lionel Stander), escapes to a castle in a desert. Donald Pleasence is living there together with Francoise Dorleac (the early deceased sister of Catherine Deneuve) and a huge number of chickens. The couple is practicing a bizarre sexual relationship. The disaster takes its run ...