Cul-de-sac

The Criterion Collection

Roman Polanski orchestrates a mental ménage à trois in this slyly absurd tale of paranoia from the director's golden 1960s period. Donald Pleasance and Françoise Dorleac star as a withdrawn couple whose isolated house is infiltrated by a rude, burly American gangster on the run, played by Lionel Stander. The three engage in role-playing games of sexual and emotional humiliation. Cul-de-sac is an evocative, claustrophobic, and morbidly funny tale of modern world in chaos.