Cul-de-sac (1966)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1966
Running Time	107:11
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Roman Polanski
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Donald Pleasence Francoise Dorleac Lionel Stander Jack MacGowran
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Komeda

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, Cornflakes and Christian Dior.
		Action In or After Credits	No

    A pair of injured gangsters are stranded by the high tide after a bungled job lands them on the brink of an island in Northumberland. With their car broken down, one of the men follows telephone lines to a castle and casually invites himself in. The castle is kept by a married couple - George, an artist and writer and his bored, promiscuous wife Teresa. Forcing himself into their lives, the thug insists on staying with them until help arrives from his mob bosses. Mayhem eventually ensues as visitors arrive at the castle and the presence of the stranger has to be explained.

    Through the stress of the situation, the couple are forced to reconsider their relationship and to help each other survive the ordeal without going insane.

    My main problem with this film was that I found it hard to empathise with the characters. Sure, the direction is brilliant and there are some genuinely funny moments to be had, but for me the film didn't work as a comedy, or a thriller, or a suspense drama - or anything really. There just wasn't enough laughter to make it a comedy, and while it had some mildly suspenseful moments, it hardly had me on the edge of my seat. Perhaps reading too many favourable reviews of this film over the years had raised my expectations too high.

    This film is certainly a treat for Polanski fans who have not seen it before, although I can only recommend that you not expect too much from this one.

Video

    This transfer is of a very similar quality and vintage to that of the first disc in the set, Repulsion - so I may repeat myself here, as you would understand.

    This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced - this is close to the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1. The transfer is also encoded with Pan & Scan information for players set up to use this information.

    The transfer is slightly sharper than Repulsion and has a decidedly more film-like quality to it. Skin textures and overall detail is good, although the transfer contains the same level of intermittent grain that is present on disc one.

    MPEG artefacts are minimal - on my first viewing I noticed macro blocking in some detailed grass at the beginning of the film, but on subsequent viewings I have been unable to find it again, which has to be a good thing. There were no major instances of aliasing present in the transfer.

    Also filmed in black and white, this transfer has bolder blacks and slightly better shadow detail than the other discs in the set. The source is heavily damaged in parts, with missing frames and skips in the film (60:34), scratches (4:32) and film artefacts - some of which are considerable, such as the white artefact that covers a face at 88:31 and a large black artefact that makes an appearance at 87:34.

    There are no subtitles on this single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio option; English Dolby Digital 2.0, surround encoded. This is certainly sourced from the film's original mono track.

    Although there is some mild hiss present here and there, the dialogue was always clear and easy to understand. There were no audio sync issues with this transfer.

    The film's music is credited to Polanski's regular composer Komeda. This is a quirky score, matching the unpredictability of the feature. There are some very jazzy moments in the soundtrack, some of which are accompanied by eerie electronic melodies and percussion. As a whole this is quite a bizarre score, but effective nonetheless.

    As well as some mild hiss, there were a few pops and clicks present in the soundtrack. The most distracting occurred at 54:13, coinciding with a damaged portion of film.

    Although the audio track is surround encoded I found that virtually all signals were directed to the front centre speaker, so my surround channels and subwoofer were given the night off.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (2:17)

    Presented in 1.33:1, this is a standard clumsy trailer of the time.

    Cul-De-Sac was released as part of a very similar boxed set by Anchor Bay in Region 2 with the following additional extras.

• English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio
• English dts audio
• Retrospective making-of featurette (23:00)
• DVD-9 dual-layered formatting
• Photo gallery and production stills
• Biographies

    The Region 2 box contains the same three feature films as the Region 4 set and a fourth bonus disc of eight short films from varying points in Polanski's career.

    Reviews that I have read speak very highly of the Anchor Bay transfer, and the addition of the above extras makes the Region 2 release the clear winner.

    The video transfer is adequate for a film of this age.

    The audio transfer is typical of a mono soundtrack, but where's the dts?

    The only extra is a trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall