Alicia I love this movie so much

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Steve Pulaski Often eclipsing Roman Polanski's early and remarkable films are his contemporary allegations, which we've all read about time and time again thanks to endless tabloid cycles that circumvent and reveal nothing new (same goes for Woody Allen), and circumstances as a young child, who saw his mother killed in Auschwitz and himself subsequently enduring many life-or-death situations in order to escape Nazi Germany. When Polanski left Germany in the early 1960's, he was a poor drifter with few belongings and fewer ideas about what he could do to maintain and forge a solid living. His angst and doubt - in addition to ideas of sexual tension and a bitter generational divide - are encapsulated in his debut film, Knife in the Water, a film with only three actors, no extras, an isolated setting, and a script bent on conversation with a venomous bite.The story begins with Andrzej (Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka), an older couple who are driving to a lake to spend time together on their yacht in Poland's Mansurian Lake District. On the way, Andrzej nearly hits a young drifter (Zygmunt Malanowicz) as he wanders onto the road, but makes it up for it by offering the young boy a ride. When the three eventually arrive at the lake, Andrzej, who has taken a liking to the boy's ideas and maturity, offers him to tag along on their yacht. The boy learns a variety of tips about survival and boating from Andrzej, as gestures slowly shift from kindness to hard lessons and two men vying for the attention of Krystyna.After brief sequences on land, Knife in the Water takes place entirely on water, simultaneously freeing its three subjects and confining them to the only kind of stability they know on rough currents - a boat where they cannot escape anyone else on board from a distance. During this time, no other boat or yacht is seen cruising along the water, nor are any extraneous parties referred to or scene throughout the course of this entire film. It's as if this film takes place entirely in a world only inhabited by three people, and the fact that Polanski tackles this kind of ambition through ways of small-scale filmmaking in terms of setting and characters is astonishingly bold for a debut.Knife in the Water is a film of dualities that occasionally conflict but otherwise function germane to one another. As stated, the environment these characters are in is simultaneously restrictive and mentally freeing, despite their choice to use it as a space that closes in on them ever-so slowly with their pervasive bickering. In addition, there's a delightful meshing of older, worn sentiments from a middle-aged man and a young opportunist who possesses drive but lacks willpower and experience to better himself. Finally, there's the titular object of the film, which is lost in the vast sea early on in the film. The phallic representation of the knife could mean many things, but it's ultimately a defining force in the constant battle for Krystyna in which both men engage. The simple is also justifiably representing the discernible sharp edge the three characters bear in their personalities throughout the whole thing, but how minimized and ineffective their stab is once placed in a greater setting (an enormous body of water, with the only other force to work alongside it being the open sky).Knife in the Water is as murky and questionable in its themes and ideas as a filthy body of water, but perhaps such is expected when you bring three troubled characters out on the pure waters of Poland. Polanski shows off a wonderful skill for making the large environment of the endless body of water slowly close in on its subjects as more particular, bitter words are exchanged and a wave of inferiority and inadequacy washes over the characters like a dip in less-than-clean-waters. This is a seriously commendable film in size and scope and an even more fascinating work as an examination of the many dualities and opposing forces, both physical and metaphorical, we see operate on a daily basis.Starring: Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz. Directed by: Roman Polanski.

magnuslhad A bourgeois couple, a jaded sportswriter and his trophy wife, are off to spend a weekend on their yacht. After bickering about her driving, the husband picks up a brash, immature young hitchhiker to spite his wife. The young man joins them on the boat, and the two men knock heads, till the young man's knife ups the stakes, becoming a catalyst for events that will shake all three to their core. Godard says all you need is a girl and a gun for a movie, but Polanski shows a girl, knife and a boat will work just as well. The two males strut and pout their chests, climbing masts and diving in the water in primitive courtship displays. The woman watches and observes, and at the end we realise she has been judging all along. Experience is dismissive of youth, youth is judgmental of age. Polanski uses his actors as framing devices and the jutting angularity of it all matches the stiff sexual tension and suppressed testosterone. The jousting turns ugly at the end, causing the cracks in the marriage to become gaping chasms. The couple reach a point where whichever way they go, their marriage will never be the same again. Subtle, inventive and stands the test of time.

Boba_Fett1138 Say what you will about Roman Polanski but boy, can he direct brilliant movies! This movie was not only Polanski's feature length directorial debut, it also was the first and only Polish movie he had ever done, that immediately earned an Oscar nomination as well.In all of its simplicity, this is a strangely haunting movie. There really is not all that much to its story, which actually only adds to the movie its atmosphere and constant tension. Because we know so very little about the 3 characters in this movie, we as the audience, also never fully know what we can expect from any of them. You could call this a slower movie but never a boring one. It's simply far too intriguing for that.But what also makes this movie great is its approach and visual style. It has some beautiful cinematography and some great compositions in it. Some of the scenes are build up extremely well, especially the ones that consists out of some very long shots. It's a movie made with lots of eye for detail and also with lots of love and passion for cinema. Normally these sort of movies tend to come across as incredibly pretentious but never a Polanski movie! He simply is an unique director, who doesn't need much story or dialog to tell a story, with multiple layers- and depth in it.I won't pretend like I love everything about this movie, it still has its flaws and weaknesses but overall this remains one real intriguing and exceptional movie!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Terrell Howell (KnightsofNi11) Knife in the Water is the debut feature film from Polish director Roman Polanski. It is a very minimalist film, shot in black and white, and spoken in Polish. It isn't much by you have to start somewhere. The film is about a rich writer and his young wife. They are going sailing for the day, but on the way to the docks they pick up a hitchhiking student whom we never learn the name of. They allow the student to accompany them on their day tour of the lake, a decision they will forever regret. Tensions start to slowly boil on the boat as relationships grow more and more heated. Almost the entire film takes place on the boat and these three are the only people in the whole movie. It is the definition of minimalist filmmaking in looks, as well as content.Knife in the Water is, for lack of a better word, dull. Not much happens and I never feel like this film is going anywhere. It is a mere 94 minutes, but the first 70 of those minutes seem to be useless and mundane. There are moments when you think it is going to pick up, but it never really does. It is a slow film that chronicles every little moment of this trip to sea and it eventually grows tiresome to just watch these characters rig up ropes, steer the boat, cook food, eat food, play games, etc. The film does start to pick up in about the last twenty minutes as events start shaking up the story so that it can come to a vague resolution. And yet the film still lacks any kind of "aha!" moment and is devoid of any real wow! factor.The film's central focus is on the relationship between the three characters on the book so most of the action is meant to develop the characters. The development is just as slow as everything else, however. We get to know these characters very well, but in the end we sort of regret it. There isn't much to know about these people and their stories lack any sort of intrigue. When I finally started to figure out these people I was hit with a faint breeze of anticlimactic. Then things begin to pick up, slow down again, become mildly interesting, then the film ends. And then as the screen fades to black I sort of just shrugged my shoulders and walked away.You could argue that there is a lot of subtext here with lots of things open to interpretation. The film is vague in location, time, and character background, so there is a certain amount of this film that you could interpret in all sorts of bizarre and far fetched ways. Personally, I don't see it. I realize where a lot of the deeper prying into the film comes from. People want to see a lot more in this film than what I believe is actually there. What I did feel was a certain amount of tension that was underlying the entire film in a very discreet and possibly non existent way. Again, I feel like I was expecting something more to this film than what was actually there, thus the tension and uneasiness was all fabricated in my mind. This is just a weird movie to wrap your head around, and it doesn't seem to amount to much in the end.Knife in the Water left me expecting a lot more. It just isn't an incredibly fascinating film. It isn't a bad film, but it isn't that great and I definitely wouldn't watch it again. I like Roman Polanski a lot and so I was really interested to see his very first feature film so it was pretty disappointing to see what little his first feature amounted to. If I had seen this in 1962 I probably wouldn't have thought much of Polanski, but of course I know how renowned he is in 2011, so Knife in the Water in no way hurts my opinion of the man's work.