Knife in the Water (1962)
Directed by Roman Polanski

Film Review

This unsettling portrayal of male rivalry and raw sexual conflict marked the startling feature debut for Franco-Polish film director Roman Polanski, who would very quickly establish himself as one of the leading filmmakers of his generation with such films as Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).  Knife in the Water is the most restrained and confined of Polanski's films - there are just three characters (not including the inflatable crocodile) and most of the story takes place on board a small yacht - and this is probably what makes it the most intense and darkly compelling of his films.

Stripped of the stylistic artifice and directorial excesses that would weaken some of Polanski's subsequent films, Knife in the Water has a realism and narrative simplicity which makes it extraordinarily effective.  With nothing to distract us we are compelled to focus our attention on the three protagonists - a couple whose marriage is visibly disintegrating and an innocent interloper who is drawn into their interminable power games.  It is evident from the word go what is motivating the three characters as they embark on their deliciously sinister relationship, cut adrift from the rest of humanity in a landscape that is as desolate as is it is beautiful.

The older man, Andrzej, sees an opportunity to prove his masculine prowess by showing his wife how he can dominate and manipulate the younger man.  Meanwhile, Krystyna is clearly tired with Andrzej and sees in the hitchhiker an opportunity to revive her flagging sex drive.  As for the unnamed interloper, his impulses are shrouded in ambiguity, but it is apparent that he finds both of his hosts strangely alluring.  He stands up to the taunts that Andrzej throws at him to impress Krystyna, but beneath this show of machismo there are some very noticeable homoerotic tensions, which both men seem to be well aware of.  This is a ménage-à-trois, in just about every sense of the term, and beneath the placid surface there are some very dark undercurrents.

The subtle power struggle builds, almost imperceptibly, towards a chilling climax, when the point of no return is reached.  As the knife of the film's enigmatic title is lost forever, both men are ready to cross the last moral boundary to prove their superiority over the other.  Of course, all this testosterone-fuelled antler-locking ultimately achieves nothing and we are soon back where we started, or so it seems.  In fact there is a winner - Krystyna.  She has shown herself to be morally and emotionally superior to both men and can face the future with equanimity, confident in the knowledge that hers is by far the stronger sex.

Film Synopsis

A married couple, Andrzej and Krystyna, are driving through the country when they come across a handsome young hitchhiker.  Grudgingly, Andrzej offers the young man a lift and he accepts.  A short while later, the trio arrive at the docks where Andrzej and Krystyna intend to set off in their yacht for a day's sailing.  The young man is about to go on his way when Andrzej persuades him to come along for a leisurely sailing trip.  Andrzej wastes no time humiliating his guest, who responds by throwing sulky ripostes at his hosts.  When the young man has proven to be a useful crewmate, an uneasy truce ensues and the three begin to enjoy each other's company.  The truce doesn't last long, however.  When Andrzej accidentally knocks the young man's treasured knife into the water, they begin to fight and the younger man falls overboard.  Convinced that the hitchhiker is about to drown, Krystyna provokes Andrzej into trying to save him.  But there is no sign of the young man...