KNIFE IN THE WATER Movie Review
Noz w Wodzie
An affluent couple are driving off to spend a weekend on their yacht when they pick up a young hitchhiker. He accepts their invitation to accompany them on their vacation, but once on the water their vicious interpersonal tensions begin to escalate into a day-long series of confrontations that will change all of their lives forever. Roman Polanski's compact, ingenious first feature looks much simpler than it is; the young director's probing, hovering camera sees the ugly behavior of this isolated little family and stares at it with the detached fascination of a scientist watching mutating germs in a petri dish. Envy, sex, greed, and anger are the fuels that power this little vacation, and they take the viewer along as well for 94 nerve-wracking but wryly funny minutes. Polanski's debut feature was based on a three-page story he developed while in film school in Poland. The project, originally turned down in 1960 by his country's film production board, was finally approved two years later. (Though Knife in the Water has the shape and economy of scale of a film-school exercise, that's only apparent in retrospect; while you're watching the movie, it captivates thoroughly.) It went before the cameras with a script by Polanski, Jakub Goldberg, and Jerzy Skolimowski (who went on to direct his own features including Deep End and Moonlighting), and went on to become an international sensation, despite being attacked at home by Poland's communist press. Knife in the Water snared the International Film Critics' Award at the Venice Film Festival, an Oscar Nomination for Best Foreign Film, and even made the cover of Time. It also marked the beginning of Polanski's successful multi-feature collaboration with the late, gifted composer Krzysztof Komeda.
NEXT STOP … Repulsion, Cul-de-Sac, Rosemary's Baby
1962 94m/B PL Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka. Zygmunt Malandowicz; D: Roman Polanski; W: Jakub Goldberg, Jerzy Skolimowski, Roman Polanski; C: Jerzy Lipman; M: Krzysztof Komeda. Nominations: Academy Awards '63: Best Foreign-Language Film. VHS, LV HMV, FOX, BTV