Cul-de-sac is a 1966 British psychological thriller directed by the Franco-Polish director Roman Polanski. It was Polański's second film in English, written by himself and Gérard Brach. Produced by Gene Gutowski.
The cast includes Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Lionel Stander, Jack MacGowran, Iain Quarrier, Geoffrey Sumner, Renee Houston, William Franklyn, Trevor Delaney, Marie Kean and Mariloup Wolfe. It also features Jacqueline Bisset in a small role, in her second film appearance. The black and white cinematography is by Gil Taylor.
The film begins with gangster Dickie (Stander) pushing his broken-down car through rising seawater while his companion Albie (MacGowran) lies inside, bleeding from a gunshot wound after a bungled robbery. Cut off by the unexpected rising tide, they are on the only road to a bleak and remote tidal island where, in a dark castle on a hilltop, the effeminate and neurotic George (Pleasence) lives with his luscious young wife Teresa (Dorléac). Dickie then proceeds to hold the two hostage while awaiting rescue by his boss, the mysterious Katelbach, even throughout an unexpected visit from one of George's old work colleagues.
Plot
A wounded criminal and his dying partner take refuge at a beachfront castle. The owners of the castle, a meek Englishman and his willful French wife, are initially the unwilling hosts to the criminals. Quickly, however, the relationships between the criminal, the wife, and the Englishman begin to shift in humorous and bizarre fashion.
Keywords: adultery, airplane, alcohol, bald-man, baldness, beach, belt-whipping, boat, british, broken-arm
Nicholas: [after being punished for scratching one of Teresa's records] That Froggy bitch pulled my ear off!::Philip Fairweather: Here, here, here! Who taught you to speak like that?::Nicholas: Mum did!::Philip Fairweather: [slaps the back of Nicholas's hand] That'll teach you to tell lies.
Albie: He's mad at us, isn't he?::Richard: He told me I was "mentally retiring", or something like that.::Albie: Yeah?::Richard: Yeah.::Albie: He's angry with us, isn't he?::Richard: He gave me Hell.
George: Get the hell outta my fortress!
Richard: Here we are!::Albie: Where?::Richard: In this shit...
In the cul de sac, so smooth
I look down
Be less sure, sir
And take your rest
It's been much too long
Since we drifted in song
Lay it down wet
In this hide-away
Oh I travelled far
To the nearest star
And met Palomar, ...mar..., mar...
And we don't care just who you know
It's who you are
And when they all go home
Down the cobblestones
You can double back (spoken "This is it")
To a cul de sac
Oh, I travelled far
The nearest star
And Mount Palomar, Palomar, Palomar, Palomar
And we don't care just who d'you know who d'you know
And who you really are, really are
And when they all,
All go home
Down the cobblestones
You will double back
To a cul de sac
You know, you know you will
You will, oh, will double back
And not very far
To a cul de sac
You, you, you... will double back
To a cul de sac
You know, you know it's not very far away
No, no
It's just a cul de sac
And you know, and you know, and you know... it's not very very far away,
It's just a cul de sac
Donn, donn, donn...
You're not very far away, No ohhh
It's not, it's not very far away
It's not as far as a country mile
Wake up now, this is the time you've waited for.
Far below, where shadows fester as they grow,
An army thousands strong, obsessed by right and wrong,
They sense their time is coming near.
So they turn towards the light from their region of the night,
Marching on and on,
They near the air, it won't be long.
You know you're on the way out,
It's just a matter of time.
You thought you'd rule the world forever,
Long live the king, and don't spare the loser.
After all, you're not what you thought you were at all.
You're just a natural fact, another cul-de-sac
On nature's hard unfeeling trail.
Now all those dreams of old will be stories left untold,
Cut off in your prime, extinct until the end of time.
You know you're on the way out,
It's just a matter of time.
You thought you'd rule the world forever,
Long live the king, but don't spare the loser now...
Now the host emerges, and a shadow starts to fall.
Not one knows what hit them, none can see at all.
Even as the end approaches still they're not aware,
How can you fight a foe so deadly
When you don't even know it's there?
And now that the job is almost done
Maybe some escape, no, not even one.
You know they're on the way out,
It's just a matter of time.
You thought you'd rule the world forever,
Long live the king, and don't spare the loser.
Should I just keep rolling
all over this town
among the buildings
and amid the sound
feels like I've been wading
this whole season through
motivation is fading too
Got no expectation
no shadow to cast
no reputation's prepared to last
free to just keep going
and wander on through
the sleeping streets
in the morning dew
and it's no good
Feels like I've been waiting
this whole season through
compensation is overdue
The world is growin' old and preparin' for sleep
But you and me are just not gettin' outta bed, wakin' up
Sunbathing on the shores of a nightmare
I wish you were here 'cause they say, we say and we say
Eternity is all used up and our hell has frozen over
But it ain't that cold it's warm enough
Sunbathing on the shores of a nightmare
I wish you were here 'cause they say
We say and we say
That we're saved
Waiting for a sign to say that it's OK
Faking all the smiles wrapped around my face
Focus on the pain and exfoliate
Focus on the pain, antithesis
Carving notches in the post of no regret
Basking in the glow waving checkered flags
Fuck you and your game, I exfoliate
Fuck you and your game, antithesis
And I feel indigo
I'm annointed to be disappointed
Annoyed just to be
I'm annointed to be disappointed
Origami
Waiting for a sign to say that it's OK
Faking all the smiles wrapped around my face
Focus on the pain and exfoliate
Focus on the pain, antithesis
And I feel indigo
I'm annointed to be disappointed
Annoyed just to be
I'm annointed to be disappointed
Origami
Feel The Pain
As Your Time Passes By
Your Life
Seems Soon To End
As You Spill Your Life Away
Break The Chains
Free Yourself
Break Away
From The Narrow -Minded Way
No Regrets
Your Choice Has Been Made
As You Turned Away
Away From Yourself
You Narrow-Minded Breed
If you take the road you're likely to take,
You will surely arrive where you began, and be the same
The soul is lovesick, though the world (is sorry).
Only knowing the moral law, the authority
Saying you must obey like Mr. K *
It's been like this for ages, of course
Like this for ages to come
(Plato) mumbo-jumbo mockery
And maybe I won't (live here) anymore
Empty is my house to the core
Maybe I won't live like this anymore
You lived your life in this house not knowing every floor
Looking for someone's help, but no one came
(Would) it be like this for ages to come
I've been leaving messages on an answering machine
in a house that's always empty, so I know nobody's listening.
I've been confessing my transgressions over tape hiss
and the silence makes me sick. No good can come from this.
I'm letting go. I've been holding on like poison ivy
out of cold suburban concrete from this careless urban sprawl.
I'm letting go. No we can't keep out of trouble.
I thought my kids would call you uncle. I thought we'd never be alone.
I've got images of you inside my head
outside of the gas station where we always used to shoplift.
It's car-crash rhetoric. We fucked up everything we came in contact with
Just boyhood recklessness.
I'm letting go. I've been holding on like poison ivy
out of cold suburban concrete from this careless urban sprawl.
I'm letting go. No we can't keep out of trouble.
I thought my kids would call you uncle. I thought we'd never be alone.
I'm letting go
If you walked me home,
you'd know how weak my arms got.
I just can't carry you.
If you walked me home,
Well I know I'd have flashbacks
of snow angels and gut laughs.
If you walked me home... but you won't. You're all alone
on some bullshit, pill-bottle vision quest.
If you walked me home
Well I don't know when I would finally work up the backbone
to walk alone.
I'm letting go because I loved you, but I have to.
I'm letting go. You know we can't keep out of trouble
I thought my kids would call you uncle. I thought we'd never be alone.
I'm letting go.
Oï-oï-oï!
La blancheur de ta race
Et la pureté de ton sang
Tu veux laisser ta trace,
Mais sans sortir du rang...
En luttant pour l'honneur,
Le drapeau, la patrie
En misant sur la peur
Tu rêves de tyrannie
Oï-oï-oï! (2x)
Guerrier de l'ordre nouveau,
Combattant de la rue
Tu veux jouer les héros
D'une croisade sans issue
L'empire que tu défends
Amorçe son déclin
Et tes actes inconscients
Le mèneront à sa fin
Il faut tirer leçon
Des gouffres de l'histoire
La force de la nation
Est toujours illusoire
Règne de la swastika,
Doublée de croix-celtique
Intérêt de l'état?
Non! Tout cela n'est qu'esthétique
T'as cherché la violence
Et puis tu l'a trouvée
C'est ta propre faiblesse
Qui t'aura achevé
De toute manière y'aura
Toujours plus fort que toi
Car la jeunesse est libre,
Et crois-moi elle le restera...
Sous notre banière noire
Nous resterons unis
En reniant les fascistes
Et les néo-nazis
Nous nous battrons aussi
Peut-être à l'occasion
Si c'est ca qui peut mener
A votre perdition...
Oï-oï-oï!
La blancheur de ta race
Et la pureté de ton sang
Tu veux laisser ta trace,
Mais sans sortir du rang...
En luttant pour l'honneur,
Le drapeau, la patrie
En misant sur la peur
Tu rêves de tyrannie
Oï-oï-oï! (2x)
Guerrier de l'ordre nouveau,
Combattant de la rue
Tu veux jouer les héros
D'une croisade sans issue
L'empire que tu défends
Amorçe son déclin
Et tes actes inconscients
Le mèneront à sa fin
Il faut tirer leçon
Des gouffres de l'histoire
La force de la nation
Est toujours illusoire
Règne de la swastika,
Doublée de croix-celtique
Intérêt de l'état?
Non! Tout cela n'est qu'esthétique
T'as cherché la violence
Et puis tu l'a trouvée
C'est ta propre faiblesse
Qui t'aura achevé
De toute manière y'aura
Toujours plus fort que toi
Car la jeunesse est libre,
Et crois-moi elle le restera...
Sous notre banière noire
Nous resterons unis
En reniant les fascistes
Et les néo-nazis
Nous nous battrons aussi
Peut-être à l'occasion
Si c'est ca qui peut mener
A votre perdition...
we’re going south
feels like it’s our fate
we’ve been on the road for so long
landscapes we’ve past seems to bleach when we catch
a glimpse at what we’ve left behind
we’re moving slowly
and we can hardly breath
i think we’re loosing balance
the air is thick and hot we’re almost swimming
in never ending ocean
we have lost all reasons we had
it feels like something’s missing
we’ve been on the road for so long that it feels like
if we turn back there’ll be nothing left behind
i’m starting to drawn
hot air’s filling my mouth and
for the moment i stopped breathing
but then i’ve heard this loud, lovely voice
just from behind my back
it says run! just run!
run back!
to take what you forget!
it says run! just run!
to me!
why did you forget?