"Young Polanski: Cul-De-Sac at Oddball Films" December 4, 2009

Event: “Young Polanski: Cul-De-Sac and More” Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present the rarely screened 1966 Roman Polanski feature Cul-De-Sac with the early Polanski student film Two Men and a Wardrobe, plus Jan Lenica’s animated short Rhinoceros. Cul-De-Sac was Polanski’s third feature (second in English) and features Donald Pleasence, François Dorléac (sister of Catherine Deneuve), Lionel Stander and Jack MacGowran in a brilliantly biting black comedy. Stranded in their tidal island chateau, a mismatched neurotic and troubled couple and two injured gangsters on the run play a cat and mouse game while they attempt an air of normalcy when unexpected visitors arrive. Inexplicably unavailable in the US since its initial release, Cul-De-Sac will be shown on a specially imported DVD- the two shorts in rare 16mm prints.
Date: Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco 94110
Admission: $10.00 RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117 or [email protected]
Web: http://www.oddballfilm.com/oddballftp/Cul_De_Sac_PR.pdf
"Young Polanski”
Cul-De-Sac Screens at Oddball Films

On Friday, December 4, Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present the rarely screened Roman Polanski feature film Cul-De-Sac . Out of print and unavailable in the US in any format, Cul-De-Sac will be shown on a specially imported European DVD. Also showing will be a rare 16mm print of Two Men and a Wardrobe, the 15 minute short made by the young Polanski while still living in communist Poland, plus the animated short Rhinoceros by the brilliant Polanski colleague Jan Lenica. Showtime is 8:30PM and admission is $10.00. Seating is limited so RSVP is preferred to: [email protected] or 415-558-8117.

Cul-De-Sac (B+W, 1966, Dir. Roman Polanski)
Fresh from the success of Repulsion and based on a 1963 screenplay whose title "When Katelbach Comes" was a conscious nod to Samuel Beckett's bleakly absurdist farces, Cul-De-Sac was also inspired by Polanski's brief and unhappy marriage to Polish film star Barbara Kwiatkowska, echoed here in the stormy, sometimes kinky relationship between bald businessman George (Donald Pleasence) and his much younger French wife Teresa (Françoise Dorléac, Catherine Deneuve's older sister).

Unexpectedly cut off by the tide, two gangsters stumble upon their island chateau. One (Jack MacGowran) dies, and the other (Lionel Stander) begins an increasingly eccentric and menacing cat-and-mouse game with the couple while all three feign normality when unexpected visitors call instead of the mysterious Katelbach, the kingpin whose Godot-like arrival is keenly awaited.

Cul-de-sac's off-kilter visuals are reminiscent of Polanski's more surreal student films, notably Two Men and a Wardrobe, Mammals and The Fat and the Lean, which are recalled in a virtuoso eight-minute take in which Stander and Pleasence run through assorted odd-couple permutations on the shoreline. Despite a difficult shoot (plagued by weather delays, crew and cast difficulties and injuries), the film was a huge critical hit and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Two Men and a Wardrobe (B+W, 1957, Dir. Roman Polanski)
Two men emerge from the ocean with a mysterious wardrobe- and are promptly rejected by ‘socialist’ society no longer in need of (possibly dangerous) miracles. A pioneering work of the Polish “thaw” of the late fifties by the then unknown Polanski.

Rhinoceros (Color, 1935, Dir. Jan Lenica)
When the storied film journal Sight and Sound asked a young Roman Polanski to name his favorite Polish filmmakers, he cited only two—Andrzej Wajda and Jan Lenica.
A master illustrator and animator (he designed the poster for Cul-De-Sac), Lenica had a flair for the absurd- Rhinoceros borrows the title and spirit of lunatic despair and pessimistic dystopia from the Ionesco play.

Curator Biography:
Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

Upcoming Programs
Fri Dec 4 – Polanski & The Eastern Europe Aesthetic – Cul De Sac & More
Fri Dec 11 Weirdsville 9 More Oddities From The Archives
Fri Dec 18 Oddball’s Greatest Hits Highlights From 6 Months of Programming

About Oddball Films
Oddball films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.  
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Official Website: http://www.flarerecord.com/?p=412