La critique de Roger Ebert(fin)

This much sounds like a standard horror-film outline, especially since Stander looks amazingly like Frankenstein. But Polanski ignores the horror to concentrate instead on macabre humor. The criminal, it appears, has an accomplice who was injured in an auto wreck. While he has been at the castle intimidating the couple, the tide has come in and nearly drowned his friend in the car. The friend is brought up to the castle, dies and is buried. Everybody gets drunk and confesses meaningless secrets.

In the morning, friends come to visit. The grisly and unshaven criminal masquerades as a butler. There is a hilarious stretch in which the dinner party gets involved in box kites, pressure cookers, Sir Walter Scott, Dior ties and omelets (the castle, it appears, subsists entirely on eggs). Then a little boy blows out a stained-glass window with a shotgun, and Pleasence, in fury, orders the guests out of his "f-f-fortress."

Polanski has fun stealing scenes. He lifts the procession of visitors to the crypt from "La Dolce Vita," the woman and bird outlined in a sunny doorway from "Through a Glass Darkly" and a shaving scene from W. C. Fields' "The Barbershop." And he plays the grave-digging scene with overtones of "Hamlet."When he finally gets back to the horror in his story it's too late to do much about it. But Pleasence, in a role that requires him to run sideways most of the time with his head at a crooked angle, is hilarious and frightening as a man going mad, and the film has an eerie appeal.

Excellent black comedy thriller

Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England
6 July 2004
This film is incredible. Polanski's best film behind Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby.(qui a bien veilli)

The plot revolves around a gangster (Lionel Stander) and his partner that seek refuge in a castle on a small island in England. The couple that inhabit the castle are played by the sublime Donald Pleasance and the beautiful Françoise Dorléac. The movie plays out like a three way triangle of hatred; we have the contempt between the couple and the gangster, who is invading their home; the gangster's mean streak is inflicted on the couple and the lady obviously holds her husband in low regard when he takes on the role of a wimp in front of the gun toting criminal. However, it is not as simple as that as in several points in the movie, the characters let their guard down and start to communicate with each other in an almost friendly way.

This is the real beauty of this film; it is a character study, studying the relationship between a couple and a third party in their home. Three is a crowd, and the effects of that true to life phrase are felt by each of the three characters.The three main players in Cul-De-Sac are fantastic, Lional Stander in particular who was surely born to play his role in this movie. He has the voice and the persona of a not very bright gangster spot on; his comic timing for some of his more obviously funny lines is also noteworthy. Donald Pleasance has never been better than he was here either; his portrayal as the 'lord of the manor' is both believable and intriguing.

Last but not least,Françoise Dorléac, in undoubtedly the most overlooked role in the piece,although no less important than the other two, is also on time and believable in her role; making up a perfect cast.From a relatively simple plot line and few characters, through excellent dialogue, restrained plotting and interesting scenarios, Roman Polanksi has managed to weave a story that is interesting and entertaining. Roman Polanski has a great flair for human relationships in his movies, the best example of this was in his best movie, Knife in the Water, and that element is abundant here too. The scenes in which all three characters are on screen interacting with each other are this movie's finest moments.

Cul-De-Sac is an excellent black comedy thriller that fans of the genre and fans of the excellent Roman Polanski will not want to miss. Recommended viewing