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Knife in the Water - Criterion CollectionRating:
Release Date: 30 September, 2003 Retail Price: $39.95 OUR Price: $35.99 You SAVE: $3.96! Cast: |
Knife in the Water - Criterion Collection Reviews
A tension-filling war of wills
A married couple (played by Leon Niemczyk and Jolanta Umecka) on their way to the harbor and a yachting outing pick up a young hitchhiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz). From then on the two men engage each other in a childish but brutal war of wills, as each tries to outbully the other. Malanowicz joins the couple on their yacht and near the end falls overboard; when he doesn't surface Niemczyk dives in after him. A short while later Malanowicz re-emerges, hops back on board, and makes love with Umecka. Niemczyk and Umecka later confront each other with some upsetting truths about the incident.
This was Roman Polanski's first feature film, and it reveals what a master he was already; he knows exactly how to build the tension between Niemczyk and Malanowicz, heightening it ever more by having Umecka, who doesn't say or do much, always in the picture prancing around in her bikini or short sun dresses: the sexual tension is intense. Polanski's use of symbols - the knife, the pole, the wind directing the boat this way and that - is also masterful. Some think this is Polanski's best movie or that he never made better movies once he came to America, but they must be forgetting CHINATOWN. The second disc of short features is okay, but not up to the feature film.
The conflicted male ego
"Knife in the Water", an early Roman Polanski effort is a simple, unfettered yet analytical probe of the human condition. Filmed principally aboard a sailboat in the lake region of northern Poland the film examines the potentially explosive interactions between three people confined in this restricted setting.
A squabbling couple pick up a young hitchhiker on their way to the marina where they are about to embark on a weekend sailing trip. The husband an arrogant, bourgeoise writer Andrzej decides to invite the young man along for reasons that will soon become apparent. The hitchhiker, a landlubber is initially ill at ease on the water. The wife Krystyna is sympathetic to his plight. Andrzej however uses this as a wedge to commence berating the boy to help evoke within himself feelings of superiority.
The drama continues with the writer putting down the boy to bolster his own ego in front of his wife. A storm hits and the group in forced below decks where the confrontation continues and threatens to erupt in violence.
Ultimately the plot reaches a climax when the writer throws the boys treasured knife into the water causing the boy, who could not swim, to dive in after it and apparently drown.
Polanski using a cast of only three demonstrates his immense skill in fabricating a taut drama with a nicely conceived plot and very decent cinematography on a shoestring budget.
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