Cul de Sac

Last weekend I went to a double feature of two Roman Polanski films, Cul-de-sac and Repulsion at the Chauvel in Paddington. Each Sunday they screen a double feature for $11 – they are mostly films from the 60s and 70s, usually an exploration of a specific director’s work. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Anyway, Cul-de-sac. It was a pretty drawn out film, but I really loved the setting, a dilapidated and isolated hilltop castle set on a ‘bleak and remote tidal island’ and the style of the lead female character, Teresa.

So, it was a little serendipitous to stumble across this fashion shoot by photographer Patric Shaw today, which uses the film as visual inspiration.







Cul-de-sac begins with gangster Dickie pushing his broken-down car through rising seawater while his companion Albie 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 lives with his luscious young wife Teresa (played by Francoise Dorleac). 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.

Zoe wrote a post earlier about Rosemary's Baby, one of Polanski's later films, which you can find here.