Knife in the Water
A labmate of mine put it like this: I am dating [my girlfriend] and I am dating [my advisor]. I was quite disturbed to hear that given how both he and our advisor are male and I am not used so-called professional contacts of mine making gay jokes, but there is some sad truth to that. I watched a whole bunch of movies lately, but there was absolutely no way I could have sat down for 10 minutes to clear my mind and write postings. (Speaking of said advisor, he wants us to think about what makes us proud in our lives. What do you think it is for me? :D)
In the case of “Knife in the Water”, it is surprisingly not a big problem. I read a few essays on the film, and it has extensive Wikipedia articles. Inexplicably, this is a film where not so much happens yet at the same time, it is touching upon so many different topics that one can exploit. It’s channeling a future Kieslowski? In other words, the film is beautifully subtle and amongst the very few Polanski films I have seen (Repulsion, The Fearless Vampire Killers), this one is easily my favorite.
On the outside, “Knife in the Water” is just about a young guy meeting some old guy with his wife, spend a day with them, talk some but not much, get into conflicts with them and finally seducing the wife. It seems like a boring love triangle, so it is surprising how there is more to it. In fact, the film barely contains any love at all – sexual tension at most – and none of the two men really interact with the wife that much. The remarkable aspect about the film is that every character has a second face. Krystyna appears rather dumb and submissive, but she is smart enough to look at aforementioned second face of both her husband and the young man. Secretly, the former is the older version of the latter, but neither wants to admit it even when the wife points it out to them. The film is not actually about a fight between two men; it is a fight between generations, between any man and their younger or older self, rendering the film one about humanity.
I found myself contemplating the film a lot after I saw it, and it certainly is not only because Jolanta Umecka looks surprisingly sexy in her bathing suit. (I want that bathing suit!) I don’t even really know why that is, but I thought it was a great display of manliness, and despite the standardized gender roles in the film I found myself very interested in the interpersonal dynamics. Unlike Godard’s and Truffaut’s fashion, in this film actually Krystyna owns them both behind her meek appearance.
Polanski’s films seem to have no common thread, and “Knife in the Water” is probably different from anything else he did, starting with the language. (Miloš Forman anyone?) For me, this film is a little gem. Very much like a Kammerspiel, and I love this kind of stuff.