Monday 13 July 2020

Alternate Best Actor 1966: Donald Pleasence in Cul-de-Sac

Donald Pleasence did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying George in Cul-de-Sac.

Cul-de-sac is a somewhat intriguing riff on the somewhat tried plot of a criminal creating a hostage situation by seeking refuge with some normal people, the normal people here not being all that normal.

After all the man, whom criminal Dickey (Lionel Strander), chooses to hide out at is played by Donald Pleasence. That already suggests this isn't exactly going to be a Desperate Hours situation of an average family man dealing with a violent criminal. We instead have Pleasence, known for the more we'll say extreme individuals, who we first meet as he is frolicking in his bedroom with his young wife Teresa (Françoise Dorléac). Pleasence is brilliantly mad in this sequence as he gets dressed up as a woman with makeup as well as they interact. This as Pleasence captures a rather unique tone within the scene that is a combination of something that while being technically intense towards the idea the character's lust, yet also spells doubt within his sort state within this relationship. This as Pleasence plays both active and passive within the interactions. This as his eyes capture the mania of going along with the act, and at the same time that certain mania alludes to the way he also has a neurotic quality combined within that. Pleasence showing a man in a state of relationship that obviously has some sort of intimacy there, but it is also a detachment all the same within the near insanity of the interaction. This marital "bliss" is short lived within the film though as the two's dalliance is broken up by Strander's Dickey who demands to use their house to hideout with the two being held as basically assumed gun point.

Pleasence's performance then in many ways here is the factor within the film that differentiates itself from most stories of the ilk. This as there is nothing about George that is a man in this situation traditionally as the secret hero or event he obvious coward. Pleasence is terrific in portraying basically this nervous breakdown the man is having in presence over the criminal, although his breakdown isn't seemingly in wholly relation to the criminal. Donald Pleasence granting his performance this near constant unease in the physicality of his work. This as even just in the way Pleasence breaths has a hurried quality, his head constantly taut, and his movements with a messy quality within them. Pleasence granting the sense of George on the verge of this breakdown and his performance portraying a man seemingly filled with worry, far beyond dealing with a violent criminal. In his interactions with the violent criminal Pleasence's portrayal of the so called fear of it is with a broken intensity of a man tip toeing on the edge of some cliff. Pleasence speaking with this near mess of words together his his deliveries this particularly when speaking of his relationship with his wife.  Although he doesn't quite state it directly, Pleasence speaks each word regarding her with this straining anxiety. Pleasence's portrayal is that of a worn mind that seems unable to comprehend his current situation almost given how caught up he is within his own mind.

The only switch though is when guests briefly come over to the house, where they must act as though nothing is out of the ordinary. This though technically is where Pleasence heavily changes his performance towards creating the idea of likely how George usually presents himself to most people. Pleasence's changes though are in the presentation of this George. This as he changes his physical performance to careful movements that are so careful they're a touch stilted. He speaks in ways with a quieter quality, though incisive though as he grants even in this quiet delivery that intensity if more carefully wound. Pleasence showing a man who even here is just barely keeping together within the normal society.  After the guests leave it essentially only leave a final violent confrontation with George to take action against Dickey. It is a remarkable portrayal of a complete mental breakdown in Pleasence's performance. This in the very act of the killing by George is with a demented neurosis. This as he barely even looks upon his target and he presents this act as a moment of sheer insanity. This though is not the end of it as Pleasence's whole performance reveals the mess of George's mind that remains after it all. His work showing the way the neurosis that was ever present fully take over as his he speaks as a man with a most limited grasp on reality. His whole manner becoming detached from all things except the randomness of the ramblings that Pleasence grants the right sense to, the sense being that George has entirely lost his mind in the moment. Although in the end I wish overall the film had maybe a bit more complexity within the scenario itself, there is still much to be found within Pleasence's portrait of man on an edge being pushed off.

58 comments:

Luke Higham said...

Ratings and thoughts on the cast.

Luke Higham said...

I now hope he gets his 3rd five for Fantastic Voyage.

Mitchell Murray said...

Yet another Donald Pleasence performance that I really ought to check out.

Also, I'd just like to mention that I re-watched the original "Fargo" after many years. My love for the film hasn't dwindled in the slightest, nor has my praise for Macy, McDormand, Buscemi and Stormare.

Michael McCarthy said...

He’s quickly becoming one of my favorites. I actually noticed pretty recently that he uses a different voice in almost every role.

Calvin Law said...

He's very good but I pretty much agree with you both on him and the film itself. Oscarsson is definitely winning this lineup now.

Luke: in response to the previous post, Ejiofor would be a 4.5, Simba would be a 4, and the whole cast is uniformly excellent. Honestly a film I regret waiting so long to watch.

Luke Higham said...

Michael: I agree with you. Absolutely adore him.

Calvin: Is Ejiofor Lead or Supporting.

Calvin Law said...

I consider him supporting.

Anonymous said...

Louis what are your thoughts and ratings on the 1977 Supporting Actress nominees?

Luke Higham said...

Calvin: Your thoughts on Caligula (1979) and Alexander (2004) with ratings for both casts.

I was surprised you didn't have the former at rock bottom for 79.

BRAZINTERMA said...

My TOP5 of the best directors in 1966:
1º Sergio Leone - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2º Ingmar Bergman - Persona
3º Kihachi Okamoto - The Sword of Doom
4º Michelangelo Antonioni - Blow Up
5º Howard Hawks - El Dorado

Tell me which one is yours?

Anonymous said...

Luke, your top five/ten Donald Pleasance performances with ratings

Luke Higham said...

Anonymous:
1. Wake In Fright (5)
2. The Caretaker (5)
3. Cul-De-Sac (5)
4. Halloween (4.5)
5. The Great Escape (4.5)

I'm gonna hold off on Fantastic Voyage and Will Penny until we're getting nearer to the reviews.

Anonymous said...

Brazinterma

1. Sergio Leone - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2. Ingmar Bergman - Persona
3. Kihachi Okamoto - The Sword of Doom
4. John Frankenheimer - Seconds
5. Fred Zinnemann - A Man for All Seasons

Michael McCarthy said...

Just putting this out there, I really don’t see Pleasence being any higher than a 4 for Fantastic Voyage. He’s easily the best of the cast because he’s a great actor, but really all of the characters in the film are massively underwritten.

Luke Higham said...

Michael: Thanks for the heads up. Guess it's gonna have to be Will Penny (Last review) then for #3.

Luke Higham said...

My Lead Actor top ten prediction

1. Wallach
2. Nakadai
3. Scofield
4. Burton (3 and 4 are interchangeable)
5. Oscarsson
6. Caine
7. Hudson
8. Eastwood
9. Pleasence
10. Nakadai

I've got Warner in 11th.

houndtang said...

His performance in Death Line is worth a look. It's a low budget exploitation horror about a cannibal.on the London Underground, but Pleasence gives a really entertaining, quirky performance as the cop on the case. Feels almost ad-libbed at times and feels like he has dropped in from a better film.

Robert MacFarlane said...

Anyone else feel like 2020 is the result of us all unwittingly wishing on a thousand Monkey Paws at once for Parasite to win Best Picture?

Emi Grant said...

Robert: If that's the case, I still think it was worth it, solely due to the fact that by April of next year, we'll still be calling Parasite the most recent Best Picture winner.

Calvin Law said...

Houndtang: sounds like an interesting precursor to his work in Halloween. I’ll check it out.

Robert: honestly feels like a year since all that happened.

I saw The Ascent, highly recommend it to you guys and think it will definitely crack Louis’ 1977 top 10.

Mitchell Murray said...

Robert: Personally, I just think 2020 was the year when a lot of fuses were lit on a lot of powder kegs - the struggles of the film industry being one of them.

It's funny that you should mention "Parasite", though, because I spent the better part of today learning Hangul. Take it from me; When people say Korean is one of the easiest languages to learn, there not kidding.

Matt Mustin said...

I watched Color Out of Space. Pretty good psychedelic Lovecraft Horror with a great score and fantastic cinematography.

Cage-4.5
Arthur-4
Knight-2.5
Richardson-3
Meyer-2.5
Hilliard-3
Chong-2.5

Calvin Law said...

Matt: the cinematography is easily my win for the year so far.

Matt Mustin said...

Calvin: No question.

Emi Grant said...

Mitchell: Wait, really? Is it not *that* hard?

Mitchell Murray said...

Emi: No, it's not that hard at all. Compared to a lot of alphabets, Hangul is a very straight forward system, with a fairly modest number of characters (40). Granted, I'm sure my pronunciation would be pretty terrible right now, but the actual vowel/consonant ratio and syllable block style was very easy to understand.

Emi Grant said...

Mitchell: Well, thanks for that info. I'll now see if I can master Korean before Bong Joon-Ho's next film.

Anonymous said...

Louis: Rating and thoughts on Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Emile Meyer and Sam Levene in Sweet Smell of Success? Apparently Lancaster forced Borgnine to play Levene's role because he wanted to break his contract with Lancaster's production company, and Borgnine refused.

Louis Morgan said...

Luke:

Strander - 3.5(Strander later on seemed a bit like a character actor out of his period, as his style did seem more suited to his 30's beginnings. Having said that I think that works well for his performance here in portraying the sort out of his depth gangster, while also just generally menacing. His performance works in that he is a bit sort of to the side in his manner and is a totally different wavelength to his "hosts".)

Dorleac - 3.5(Overshadowed to a degree by Pleasence though I do think her performance works to the extent of facilitating hers. This in bringing the right sort of flirtatious energy with it, but also the same time a degree of almost enigmatic detachment from him. This as they successfully don't quite have a chemistry in the normal sense creating the right idea of the relationship being not ideal, though not in a typical way of that either.)

MacGowran - 3.5(Typically enjoy his work no matter how brief, it is fairly brief here, though he's effective in being quite weird in his eccentricities while also portraying the man completely lost even beyond that as a dying man.)

Anonymous:

I believe I likely covered them all before.

Anonymous:

The same for the Sweet Smell of Success cast.

Mitchell Murray said...

Emi: I should also mention that, as a co-worker at one of my jobs pointed out, Korean has several dialects. The one that's perhaps most widely used/taught is standard South Korean, which is based out of Seoul.

I'm not sure which dialect Joon-Ho speaks, but I just wanted to mention it in case there were some different phrases here or there.

Tim said...

any chance that Bogie in The Caine Mutiny might become a 5?

Emi Grant said...

Mitchell: Got it.

Louis Morgan said...

Tim:

Not completely out of the question, as Bogart losing it, is perhaps Bogart at his best. I will note the screentime site Robert referred us to helped in moving him to supporting, as there was no argument really to made there given he has less than 25% screentime.

Tim said...

also, your thoughts on this cast for a remake of Road to Perdition?


Michael Sullivan: Woody Harrelson
John Rooney: Liam Neeson
Connor Rooney: George McKay
Harlen Maguire: David Dastmalchian
Finn McGovern: Chris Cooper

Louis Morgan said...

Tim:

Like all the casts in the parts in theory, though I think you need a bit more of an age difference between Michael Sullivan and John Rooney, to get a stronger sense of the father/son relationship. Harrelson and Neeson would come off as a fraternal relationship...that could also work however I think you want Rooney to be older in general for the whole sort acceptance of his death to work best. Neeson in 10 years would be perfect.

Anonymous said...

Louis from the screentime site, what were your biggest surprises? Do you think there should be a screentime limit in place?

Louis Morgan said...

Anonymous:

Surprises of having far less screentime percentage than I would've expected:

Hackman (Unforgiven)
De Niro (Godfather Part II)
Charles Laughton (Mutiny on the Bounty, actually having the least screentime of the trio)
Lee J. Cobb (On the Waterfront)
Joel Grey (Cabaret)

More than:

Lemmon (Mister Roberts)
Brennan (The Westerner, though perhaps that's because the scenes without him are interminable)
Robert Strauss

I have to say no, though I think one can be automatically placed in supporting under 30% because there are only rare exceptions to this (Brando in the Godfather). I think one should examine the placement for over 30% however.

Michael McCarthy said...

What was the name of that site again?

Bryan L. said...

Michael:

https://www.screentimecentral.com

Robert MacFarlane said...

Louis: My cutoff for whether a role can be lead is 25%. As for the opposite direction, 45% is my cut off for supporting (though very rarely will it exceed 40%). There are exceptions like Strauss, but I'm keeping to the other end. I actually am moving Brando in Godfather to Supporting.

Bryan L. said...

Anonymous: He covered Susan Harrison in Dafoe's review for Light Sleeper.

Matt Mustin said...

Louis: OK, well that under 30% thing means that I once again have to consider Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem supporting in No Country For Old Men.

Robert MacFarlane said...

Matt: The Bardem one shocked me, I could have sworn he was in it way more than that.

Robert MacFarlane said...

Also, he listed the first few Batman films with percentages, and did anyone else get a morbid laugh at how little screentime Keaton had compared to his costars in both films? Like, Burton's lack of fucks over Bruce is kind of hilarious to me.

Bryan L. said...

Hold on...Gene Hackman only has 30 minutes of screentime for Unforgiven?! He really is that great as Little Bill...

Robert: Same haha, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Batman Returns.

Matt Mustin said...

Robert: Me too. A testament to his performance, for sure.

Matt Mustin said...

Yeah, DeVito has the most screentime in Returns and thinking about it is actually the most important character.

Louis Morgan said...

Robert:

I think those are fair metrics, and I think that's a fair placement for Brando (who I find largely difficult because he is a leading character in the novel, having the additional Godfather II "screentime" so to speak there, while in the film keeping the importance found there despite not being in it all that much.)

Robert MacFarlane said...

I actually asked the guy who runs the site to do the percentages for In the Loop, because I have Capaldi as my 2009 Lead win and want to see if he at least meets the 25% threshold.

Matt Mustin said...

I still think POV is a relevant factor too, though. For example, I can't ever consider J.K. Simmons anything but supporting in Whiplash, because we're always kept at a distance from him, and only see him from Miles Teller's POV.

Calvin Law said...

It might be high time for me to bite the bullet and admit that Christian Bale simply isn’t supporting for The Fighter.

Matt Mustin said...

Calvin: An argument could be made that he is the titular Fighter.

Anonymous said...

Louis: Thoughts on the visual styles of Raoul Walsh and Anthony Mann?

Luke Higham said...

It looks as if Tenet will be delayed into 2021, more likely the summer.

With 2020, I could care less on who's getting reviewed now, I still hope this year will be good enough for both categories.

Anonymous said...

Louis: About Stander, what did you think of his voice work as Kup, the cranky old Autobot?

Luke Higham said...

Onward will probably be my final theatrical experience of 2020.

Louis: Do you think The French Dispatch will still be released this year. I hope Wes Anderson will allow for Streaming.

Louis Morgan said...

Anonymous:

I covered Mann's style when I gave thoughts on him as a director.

Walsh's style I'd call efficiently dynamic, particularly for his time as a studio American director. This as in general he went for a realistic design in his films, though with stylings naturally within that. White Heat for example, his most impressive film I've seen visually, has some brilliant visual ideas, particularly in Cody's breakdown and his final end. In those though Walsh doesn't do a "look at me", but rather efficiently uses them to center on Cody. Walsh is remarkable in that you see him working, yet thriving within the system. He's working on sets for example, yet making so much out them, and pushing boundaries in a way that didn't earn him the plaudits, or even the credit at this point, however crafted some memorable films through it.

Anonymous:

Perfectly cast as the cranky old man.

Luke:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpaQpyU_QiM

Anonymous said...

After Ernest Borgnine received the Best Actor Academy Award for "Marty", he did not want to accept a non-starring role in "Sweet Smell of Success", even though he had a seven year contract.

When Borgnine initiated a lawsuit to get out of his contract, Lancaster replaced Borgnine with veteran Broadway and film actor Sam Levene as theatrical agent Frank D'Angelo in "Sweet Smell of Success".

Lancaster first met Sam Levene a decade earlier when Lancaster made his professional acting and Broadway debut in the Broadway drama "A Sound of Hunting" starring Sam Levene. Sam Levene introduced Lancaster to Harold Hecht, his long-time producing partner and the two actors also worked together in three films, the film noir classic "The Killers" in which Lancaster made his film debut, "Brute Force", his second film directed by the legendary Jules Dassin and "Three Sailors and A Girl", a musical, which Lancaster produced.