Knife In The Water

Pros: Jerzy Lipman's cinematography, picturesque actors
Cons: too atmospheric for some and being in Polish bothers some

"(Nóz w wodzie," Roman Polanski's first feature-length film, which is also his only Polish feature film, is a fairly minimalist (low-budget) portrayal of three people mostly on a sailboat. It begins with a buxom young woman (Jolanta Umecka) in very ...

Pros: Crafty psychodrama; great image construction; taut script
Cons: Not as masterful or complex as the best of Polanski's later work

Knife in the Water would be an important film regardless of its quality, as the first feature film of a great director. It is, however, also one of the finest debut films you'll come across. This intense psychodrama cryptically examines the ...

Pros: music, cinematography
Cons: almost everything else: slow, conflict uninteresting, never amounts to anything

Having just found Rosemary's Baby to be an excellent film, and having loved Chinatown , I decided to check out some of Polanski's earlier, non-American work. Knife in the Water is his first feature film as director, and I have...

Pros: Thoughtful, stimulating, powerful
Cons: No reason for Polanski's reputation as a genius

I rented Roman Polanski's film Knife in the Water knowing full well that I am not a fan of his work and tend to see it as crass, visually clumsy and intellectually clumsy with an adolescent sensibility. Knife in the Water was an interesting film and it...

Pros: tension, characters, script
Cons: slow, talky

"Knife in the Water" was the first feature film that Roman Polanski directed, having earlier made a series of shorts. It was also the last film that he would make in Poland, as critical success and government interference led to greener...

Pros: Enticing, Stylish
Cons: Not a Very Stimulating Plot, Weak Action

Knife in the Water is an excellent film. It is truly a director's film, appreciable not so much for its dramatic intrigue as for the way that it works on screen. The film is truly a gem of Roman Polanski's incredible talent and creativity as a director. ...

Pros: Deeply suspenseful, note-perfect acting -- and very insightful into what was to come for Polanski, easily one of our greatest contemporary filmmakers! Good jazz score too.
Cons: Slow at first, not especially eye-catching.

By Max Scheinin.

I saw The Blair Witch Project accompanied by a friend who, at its end, stood up and remarked "That was stupid." A month later, when I watched Knife in the Water, a Polish film made in 1962, with the same friend, he...

Pros: A simple story, charged with sexual and psychological tension.
Cons: None

If you only know Roman Polanski for his connections to the Charles Manson murder of his wife Sharon Tate, in 1968, or his statutory rape conviction, you're not getting the whole story. If you know him for his American films, Rosemary's Baby and...

Pros: work of a master
Cons: develops slowly. If you want a movie that rushes, this is not it.

Movie on a budget. Three actors, two guys and a gal on a boat.

Gets to the core of human experience. One great thing about the movie is there is nothing frivolous to it. There are many times of no talking happening, but the people are positioning/posturing themselves. This is well done, and seldom seen in movies.

The end is, in my opinion, better than any Hitchcock ending. It's quite clever, but plausible as well.