by Tony Dayoub
Earlier this month, the Criterion Collection released Roman Polanski’s absurdist film Cul-de-sac (1966) on DVD and Blu-ray, perhaps to coincide with the exiled director’s birthday on August 18. Its story centers on the irritatingly meek George (Donald Pleasance) and his liberated young wife, Teresa (Françoise Dorléac). Both live in a castle on an isolated English isle in Northumberland whose road to the mainland is cut off for hours each day whenever the tide rises. Fleeing in the wrong direction from a botched job, that’s how two bumbling gangsters — Dickie (Lionel Stander) and the fatally wounded Albie (Jack MacGowran) — end up stuck there, their broken-down getaway car engulfed by the encroaching sea. Dickie can’t drive, clipped pretty badly in the arm himself. So he calls his unseen boss, Katelbach, asking to be picked up. In the meantime, Dickie, George and Teresa engage in a battle of wills rife with elements of sadomasochism, class distinction and gender politics.
