What to Stream: Roman Polanski's Thriller on a Boat, 'Knife in the Water'
Knife in the Water (1962) Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant, and iTunes
The Basics: Director Roman Polanski’s Polish-language feature debut possesses the same unbearable tension seen in later masterworks like Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby.
If You Liked: Dead Calm, Lifeboat, and Psycho
The Nugget: A married couple makes a potentially fatal mistake when they invite a young drifter on an afternoon sailing trip.
After years of making short films in his native Poland, Polanksi vaulted onto the international scene with this taut psychological thriller about a chance encounter on a sailing trip, which picked up a prize at that year’s Venice Film Festival and went on to become the first Polish feature nominated for the best foreign language Oscar. Making striking use of the confined setting and small cast, the director keeps the audience in a constant state of unease as this strange scenario plays itself out. The promise — or should that be threat? — of sex and violence hover in the air as the older husband and the young man compete for the attention and affection of the lone woman, who is more in control of the situation than might initially appear. And where Phillip Noyce’s unofficial 1989 remake Dead Calm (which stars a young Billy Zane and an even younger Nicole Kidman) heads into action-movie territory, Knife remains a psychological puzzler first and foremost. It’s a confident debut that highlights its director’s formidable artistry and hints at the even better movies he’ll make later on.
Photo credit: Everett
