Knife in the Water (1962)
Directed by Roman Polanski
On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband's panic results in unexpected consequences.
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What critics compared Knife in the Water to
They're towing a sailboat behind them so that, presumably, we can be reminded of Polanski's "Knife in the Water" (a psycho terrorizes a married couple aboard their yacht; it also inspired the Australian oceangoing thriller "Dead Calm").
An austerely heightened tale of sensual anxiety, My Summer of Love is shot in a gorgeous, saturated handheld style that recalls the Danish Dogmatists but also carries premonitions of perversity and dread that reach back to such Roman Polanski films as Knife in the Water and Cul-de-Sac.
From Knife in the Water, to Repulsion, to The Tenant and The Pianist, he's a master of claustrophobic close encounters, and as such has a good time adapting Yasmin Reza's play, God of Carnage.
For that matter, the concept of characters held in some form of isolating prison runs through Polanski’s filmography from Knife in the Water (1962) through The Ghost Writer (2010).
As a director, I mean. In fact, his first feature, " Knife in the Water ," made in his sort-of native Poland in 1962, is set almost entirely on a pleasure boat owned by a quarrelling couple.
"Carnage," which won the Golden Lion for best film at the 2011 Venice Film Festival , has been talked about as a quintessential Polanski movie, perhaps because he has so often made films about sufferers in enclosed spaces (for example, "Knife in the Water," "Repulsion," "The Tenant," "Death and the Maiden," and " The Pianist ").
CHICAGO – Roman Polanski may not seem to be the first choice for a film about culture clashes in New York City but he has notable experience with dramas with only a few characters in a few locations (“Knife in the Water,” “Cul-de-sac,” “Death and the Maiden”).
He's attacked the single location problem before (in 1962's tense "Knife in the Water") and he handles the chronological aspect like a pro.
There are sequences in Polish (including a brief appearance by Leon Niemczyk, the lead in Polanski's KNIFE IN THE WATER), a recurring image of three rabbits who star in a sitcom (shorts that first appeared on Lynch's fee-based website ), and cameos by actors like Mary Steenburgen, William H. Macy, Laura Harring, Nastassja Kinski, Diane Ladd (sending up Hollywood gossip queens), Grace Zabriskie (as an oddball Polish neighbor in a just this side of an over-the-top performance), and Harry Dean Stanton (as Irons' right-hand man).
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Drawing from deep wells on cinephilia and, it seems, cynicism, Perry is relentless toward his characters, and his depiction of cinematic female hysteria, somewhat after the fashion of Roman Polanski, is in line with the coruscating fevers of “Knife In the Water” and “Repulsion.”
Its thrills, conceived in the Polanski mold, are highly concentrated and deftly realized, registered on a heady pitch somewhere between Jacob's Ladder and Knife in the Water.
First-time writer-director Bryan Bertino is a talent to watch, and he shares Roman Polanski's knack (in "Knife in the Water," "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby") for mixing sadness and dread in opening scenes that skillfully set the tone for escalating terror.
It’s easy because Polanski remains a consummate craftsman, just as capable of making swift, witty, precisely stylized diversions now as when he made Knife In The Water nearly 50 years ago.
Although “The Ghost Writer” is more traditional in its storytelling than his early masterpieces like “Rosemary’s Baby” or”Knife in the Water,” the man hasn’t lost any of his ability to keep an audience on the edge of its seat.
And it's important to remember that Polanski's earlier films -- much like Fritz Lang's during his Hollywood period -- were mostly dime-store thrillers of a similar nature ( Knife in the Water , Repulsion , Rosemary's Baby , The Tenant , etc.); it's just that time has turned them into classics.
And Polanski, in films like Repulsion, Knife In The Water and Chinatown, was a director who understood sinister and understood evil.
As Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer putt-putt-putted along, I found myself reacting very similarly to his highly-regarded debut, Knife in the Water.
Not only is Saint Maud one of the best genre films of an already incredible year – it’s arguably the most thematically clinical debut since the icy detachment of Polanski’s Knife in the Water.
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The influence of the controversial Polish filmmaker’s work looms large over this film, particularly his vintage ’60-era thrillers like Rosemary’s Baby , Knife in the Water and Repulsion .
The picture is muted and dour, especially in Szpilman's delirious traipse through the wasteland during its final hour, but its resolution seems somehow too optimistic--it is the Polanski of Frantic, not the Polanski of Knife in the Water; true to life or no, as art it lets the air out of the balloon.
Though The Pianist is performed in English, it marks the first time the 69 year-old Polanski has filmed in his home country of Poland since his superb 1962 feature debut, Knife in the Water.
It's hard to believe that Roman Polanski's feature debut came exactly 40 years before his Oscar-winning The Pianist, and his explorations of paranoia and male behavior remain refreshingly the same.
Roman Polanski's ("Rosemary's Baby"/"Repulsion "/"The Pianist") first feature-length film, Knife in the Water, does all of the following so well: its economy in style, slow boiling build-up of tension, display of primitive machoism and sexuality, emotional games, humiliation over male competition, unsettling mood, and driving psychological force.
In Polish, the film is generally less known than the directors infamous private life and less seen than later efforts in French and, from the mid-60s on, English -- Repulsion, Cul-de-Sac, Dance of the Vampires/The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, Rosemarys Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown, Tess, The Pianist and relative flops Pirates and Frantic.
The film was shot in Poland (where he had not worked since his first feature film, "Knife in the Water," in 1962), and also in Prague and in a German studio.