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The Appropriate Tune: "I'll Fall With Your Knife", by Peter Murphy
Originally I was going to lead this off with a talk about the state of cinema in the 60s, how both sides of the ‘Iron Curtain’ were putting out excellent films, even though most of the credit tends to go toward the French New Wave and Italian neorealists. Then I was going to do something addressing Roman Polanski. Neither of them felt right though so I’m just going to get to the film.
Released in 1962 through Zespol Filmowy, Knife in the Water was the directorial debut of Roman Polanski, written by Jakub Goldberg, Jerzy Skolimowski and Polanski himself. Leon Niemczyk and Jolanta Umecka play Andrezj and Krystyna, a couple driving down the road when they come across, almost run over, a young hitch-hiker played by Zygmunt Malanowicz. They pick him up on their way to the marina, where they have a boat docked, and ultimately manage to convince him to join them on their sailing trip across the lake. However it soon becomes clear that this is no holiday trip between friends. There is a tension building here, an inevitable implosion between these people, but when will it happen? What form will it take? What is it about Poland and stolen windshield wipers? You’ll have to see for yourself.
The main thrust of Knife in the Water is human behavior, for lack of a better description. The relationship between Andrezj and the young man, the young versus old, the romantic versus the rational. Which then morphs into the parent-child dynamic as the young man tries to prove his competency in a world he has little experience in (sailing), which of course leads into something of an oedipal complex and this sexual contest between the woman and the two men. All of which is steeped in this tension where you’re just waiting for someone to snap and start throwing fists. Which feels incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, and makes for some good drama.
The crux of this tension and this drama lies in the fact that these characters are forced to deal with each other due to being stuck in this boat, but Polanski never allows the setting to limit the dynamism of the film. There are shots that invoke the physical intimacy of the characters, having them in the immediate foreground as characters in the background are directed towards us. Aerial shots where we are looking down at the characters, shots from the water, a lot of stuff that would probably be a hassle to do in the early 60s and which highlight the characters and their isolation from anything and everyone else. Combined with the script it’s a deceptively advanced work for someone’s debut film.
I also have to give credit to the film’s score, which was done by Krysztof T. Komeda. Musically Knife in the Water sounds like what you imagine all those film noir detective movies would sound like: smooth jazz that seems to slink around the room like a plume of smoke from a beautiful woman’s cigarette. Something which I think compliments the film, as it accentuates this atmosphere of lethargy where the characters ultimately have nothing to do but deal with each other. I think there may be some points where we shift into something a bit more folk-based, but the jazz is what really makes this movie pop in my opinion.
Of course if you’re not a fan of that era of directors, Bergman, Truffaut, what have you, then I doubt Knife in the Water would change your mind. Although it’s much more straightforward then, say, Godard’s Alphaville, this is still a film of very little action, and where if characters do talk it’s often around the point rather than on it. It’s a very psychologically-centered film, dealing in questions of maturity and the male ego, and there are certainly many people out there that don’t have the patience to sift through that. I did, and even I am struggling to put this review together, if that tells you much.
Still I think I’ll give Knife in the Water the recommendation. While I think it drags a bit, maybe by design, by the end I think it managed to tell an intriguing story. It’s not a blockbuster or some grand epic by any means, but as a debut film I think it showed a great deal of promise and a knowledge of the craft that would have established Roman Polanski as a director worth keeping track of, an assumption that would eventually be justified in his later films and not the horrible things he would also take part in. It’s definitely not a party movie, but if you’re in a more sullen mood on All Hallow’s Eve then you might throw this on and brood for a while. If you have a boat then even better.
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