Fantastic Françoise Dorléac... Cul-de-Sac (1966), L'Homme de Rio (1964) et Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)

Yesterday was a bit of a Françoise Dorléac-fest. I wanted to watch Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967) to remind me of the holiday in the south of France we've just had and, having been knocked out by the elder Dorléac sister, that led me to watching Cul-de-Sac to see how she performed in a darker role.

Short answer is that she seemed capable of absolutely anything.

In Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort) Francoise sings, dances and acts with almost equal expertise. She's not only up against her younger sibling (Catherine Deneuve) but also has to dance with Gene Kelly who, though he may have been 55 at the time was still a model of grace and power.

It's a slight tale of how the girls find love and in the case of their mother re-finds it, following the visit to Rochefort of a travelling fair. The girls are music and dance teachers and have ambitions to go to Paris to find their fortunes. As things turn out their romantic and career fortunes come to meet them in their home town... albeit on the way out in Catherine D's case.

It could be corny (would be if it had been British!) but it all works remarkably well with the energetic direction of Jacques Demy who ensures a consistency of tone and pace throughout and who uses the amazing light of the southern French Atlantic coast to superb affect. A musical in traditional style made in 1966 shouldn't have worked this well but Michel Legrand's music is strong, inventive and lush and is very well performed.

It's enough to cheer even the grumpiest of cynics up and is a riot of positive colours from start to finish. The Dorléac sisters also have a highly positive impact on the endorphins and rip through the film with elegant energy. No objective winner between them but I'm a fan of the red hair (as my wife, with her own splash of gold can attest!).

Cul-de-Sac is the film Françoise made immediately before Rochefort. It was directed by Roman Polanski and could hardly provide a greater contrast, filmed in plain black and white on the Northumbrian coast (North Sea no match for the Atlantic coast's sun power).

Françoise plays Teresa, a young French woman married to an older man George, played with an unstable intensity by Donald Pleasence. They live in a renovated castle on a tidal island that is only intermittently accessible from the mainland.

Into their world of upper middle class comfort come a couple of criminals on the run from a botched robbery. Lionel Stander plays Richard (Dickie) and Jack MacGowran is the mortally wounded Albie. Stander is superb as the intelligent and menacing Dickie and his gravelly tones are almost a comedic overstatement of the hard-bitten accent acquired during his Bronx upbringing.

He over-powers the couple and Richard is helpless to match him. Teresa has far more fight and is Richard's match throughout even if she is cowed by his physical threat. There's an uncomfortable atmosphere throughout the film as Polanski expertly draws his audience into this strange encounter: what would we do if our homes were so invaded?

Teresa toughens up and looks for her chance manipulating the men as far as she is able. George begins to fall apart (and Donald Pleasance was simply brilliant at doing this!) but it is not a straightforward trajectory. When a work colleague arrives, he is able to re-assume his more natural authority...a self-made man, a successful and forceful business man. Yet he cannot exert the same force against the physically and mentally implacable "Dickie".

Dorléac's performance is on a par and is nuanced and unpredictable as she looks for a way out. Playing up to Dickie, getting him drunk, forcing the situation on towards the bloody conclusion. It's not at all clear that Dickie would have killed the couple in the end and, as he staggers towards them fatally wounded he appears to pull back from shooting them: "you idiots..." he cries as if they had miss-read everything in their fear.

As she was always likely to do (even in the early scenes she is fooling around with a young male neighbour) Teresa leaves with another man, the suave Cecil played by William Franklyn (who once gave way to me whilst we were both driving on the South Circular in Putney; nice man!). She still tries to get George to come with them but stops when she realises that he's "gone". How short a time it took to break the man.

Cul-de-Sac is unsettling because none of us really know how we would cope when our lives are threatened. Polanski brilliantly sets the characters (and actors) against each other and we're unsure of their direction and their motives until the very end.

Françoise Dorléac acts superbly and shows a much darker edge than you would expect from Rochefort. An extraordinary actress who would have gone on to be every inch the global star as her sister. A car crash when she was just 25 ended her life all too soon… the epitome of tragic.

I’d also mention her performance in the excellent Jean Paul Belmondo spy-spoof, L'Homme de Rio (1964). I love this film and it's one of the very first French films I saw. I watched it again recently and it stands up for Belmondo's none-stop energy and screen presence. Françoise Dorléac matches him in terms of the comedy and glamour...a star already at 21.

This one is finally available on English subs DVD but a better quality rendering is still much needed!

Buy it anyway to see Françoise Dorléac in comedy. Buy Cul-de-Sac to see her in dark drama and buy Les Demoiselles de Rochefort to see her sing and dance.

A truly fantastic talent. It goes without saying that she was amazingly beautiful as well.