FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Roman Polanski - Knife In The Water

At some point, Hollywood had changed. At the latest when a young European without Hollywood experience was entrusted with a lucrative project and simply left the script and direction to him according to his own whims. That was when Paramount produced "Rosemary's Baby" by Roman Polanski. Polanski can be regarded as the very first director from the world beyond the Iron Curtain to be granted such an honour. Back in the late 60s, only insiders knew Polanski's first film Knife In The Water. My father once boasted that it was HE who made Polanski accessible to the West by going over to East Berlin to bring the early Polanski shorts to West Berlin for his film club. Anyone who didn't know that - well - maybe there was another insider who was possibly even faster than my father. Polanski films prefer to deal with macabre, bizarre themes, trying out all the film genres. At one point I read that Polanski most admired Luis-Bunuel with his fondness for fetishes, black magic and the supernatural. Sure! But Knife In The Water is more an example of how to make a great movie with the simplest means. An irritable older man and a good-looking woman take a young guy with them, who hitchhikes. They invite him to go sailing with them. On the yacht, the tension rises as both men compete in an alpha contest for the woman's favour. Everything that constitutes later Polanski classics is already there. Something menacing resonates beneath the surface and the hustle and bustle of the alpha males is also funny. Humiliation, aggression, sexuality and absurdity - with only three actors and a boat. The script was written by Jerzy Skolimowski and obviously Polanski and Skolimowski love the Nouvelle Vague much more than the contemporary pessimistic Polish films of their time. A gleeful relationship drama, which is in reality a black comedy and often looks like a psycho-thriller. So lovingly made that I could see it again and again!

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