KNIFE IN THE WATER

Poland, 1962, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Milanowicz.
Directed by Roman Polanski.

Knife in the Water is Roman Polanski's debut feature film. It is an assured piece of work, very much in the atmosphere of dramas with psychological overtones of the 1960s (Antonioni, Louis Malle, Truffaut). Within two years Polanski was making Repulsion then Cul de Sac and within five years had made Rosemary's Baby. In a forty-year career he has made such films as Chinatown, Tess, The Tenant as well as winning an Oscar as best director for The Pianist.

Polanski also had a very different life because of his marriage to Sharon Tate and her murder by Charles Manson and his gang. It is clear that themes of violence and psychological repression were important to him before the death of his wife. However, he immediately made a Macbeth which seemed to echo his experience.

Knife in the Water is set on a lake in Poland, on a Sunday, a husband and wife going yachting and picking up a hitchhiker. The husband seems to be proving his skills to the younger man. The younger man seems to be something of a drifter, although a student. The wife is annoyed by her husband's behaviour, succumbs to the young man momentarily, and the film ends with the two in a parked car at a crossroads.

There is a fine jazz score, effective black and white photography, dramatic editing - which made Polanski a force to be reckoned with as he began his career and the film has become a classic.

1. The work of Roman Polanski? His skill as a director, his sense of drama, interrelationships, psychology, violence? This film seen in the light of his subsequent career? Its classic status?

2. Poland in the 1960s, part of the Soviet Bloc - and the echoes in the dialogue about the wealthy, apartments, yachts and ownership or renting? The couple as affluent? The student as a hitchhiker, a more ordinary proletariat person?

3. The black and white photography, the early morning, the day, the storm, the night, the subsequent morning? The changing of lighting for the times of day, for moods? The lake, the sailing, the dramatic effects - of the young man walking on the water? The bringing of the yacht through the reeds_?

4. The effect of the musical score, a jazz score, from Poland in the 1960s?

5. The husband and wife, the age difference, their appearance, conventional? Their car, affluent in the communist society? Their boat at the marina? And so few other boats and none on the lake? Their driving, the husband taking over from the wife? Driving fast? Almost running over the student? Their reactions?

6. The student, his explanation of himself, on the road, daring drivers? His getting the lift? His sitting in the back, discussions with the couple? At the marina, helping at first, the conversations, going off? The husband calling him back?

7. The day on the lake, the detailed look at sailing, the work on the boat, each of the three characters and the detail of what they were doing with sails, masts, the deck? The cramped quarters below deck? The conversations, sunbaking, swimming? The meal? The drinks?

8. The husband, his age, experience, the discussions with the young man, the repercussions of his stopping the car? Inviting the young man, to share the day, to show off? His ordering the young man around, getting him to do menial tasks, explaining things? The meal?

9. The wife, subservient to her husband, skilled at work on the boat? Her provocative costume? Sunbaking? The meal, the young man boasting of holding the pot and dropping the soup? His sulking? The wife inviting him back?

10. The swimming, the changing of the weather, the storm? Trying to cope with the boat, the couple returning swimming, the young man and his finally managing the boat? Drying off? Playing Fiddlesticks and the intensity with which the husband played to win?

11. The aftermath, the young man, the clash with the husband, the young man going overboard? The wife swimming to find him, his hiding under the buoy? The husband going in, unable to find him? Swimming to shore - although the audience might have thought he had drowned? The young man swimming back to the boat, the reaction of the wife? The advance, the sexual encounter? Arriving back at the dock, the young man going on his own way?

12. The wife and the husband, the explanations, the husband feeling guilty, thinking the young man was dead? The wife's explanation, her husband not believing her? Her explanation about the infidelity, her motivation? His continued disbelief?

13. The car seen in the distance sitting at the crossroads - the future relationship of the two?

14. Polanski and his skill in creating characters, tensions - spending most of the film showing the three people in ordinary situations, the building up of the rivalry, the psychological drama of the young man, his knife, the husband throwing the knife and it going into the water? (And the thrusting of the knife during the games?) The psychological and symbolic tensions?