Cul-de-sac

UK 1966, d Roman Polanski

Repulsion's success ensured that Polanski's second British film would have a bigger budget and much more creative freedom. Based on a 1963 screenplay whose title "When Katelbach Comes" was a conscious nod to Samuel Beckett's bleakly absurdist farces, it was also inspired by Polanski's brief and unhappy marriage to Polish film star Barbara Kwiatkowska, echoed here in the stormy, sometimes kinky relationship between bald businessman George (Donald Pleasence) and his much younger French wife Teresa (Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve's older sister).

Unexpectedly cut off by the tide, two gangsters stumble upon their island chateau. One (Jack MacGowran) dies, and the other (Lionel Stander) begins an increasingly eccentric and menacing cat-and-mouse game with the couple while all three feign normality when unexpected visitors call instead of the mysterious Katelbach, the kingpin whose Godot-like arrival is keenly awaited.

Cul-de-sac's off-kilter visuals are reminiscent of Polanski's more surreal student films, notably Two Men and a Wardrobe, Mammals and The Fat and the Lean, which are recalled in a virtuoso eight-minute take in which Stander and Pleasence run through assorted odd-couple permutations on the shoreline. Despite a difficult shoot, the film was a huge critical hit and won the Golden Bear at Berlin.