- The central question in my mind while watching Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water: Why would Andrzej (Leon Niemczyk), Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka), and the hitchhiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz) even go out on the boat in the first place? My impression is that none of them actually care much about sailing. Andrzej certainly likes showing off and ordering people around, so maybe he was just attracted to the idea of being a captain. Judging from the fact that the hitchhiker enters the film standing in the middle of a road, he is obviously something of a free-spirited daredevil. And then there's Krystyna, the real riddle. She appears to be having neither a good time nor a bad time on the trip. Even her brief affair with the hitchhiker seems more perfunctory than passionate.
- Confusing as they may be, these characterizations are certainly at the heart of this extremely minimalist film. With the exception of a few scenes at the beginning and end, the action takes place entirely on a small sailboat. We don't really get much in the way of background on any of the characters, aside from learning that Andrzej is relatively wealthy and the hitchhiker relatively poor. The two men are competitive in a manner that one imagines would often lead to bar fights. In contrast, Krystyna is almost entirely passive. It's a good question whether or not she realizes that the hitchhiker has been glancing when she changes clothes, just as it is reasonable to wonder whether it is her male entourage or the film itself that thinks of her as a sex object.
- Oddly enough, the only two times I've ever gone sailing were with a man similar in many ways to Andrzej. He was an oddly combative fellow who constantly tried to illustrate how much more he knew about every subject than anybody else. I distinctly remember him warning me that he once intentionally steered his boat so that the boom would sweep his unwary son-in-law off the deck. (Needless to say, I kept my head down and eyes open for the entirety of my two excursions.) Strange that such a character would be attracted to a nominally relaxed hobby like sailing. In any case, I went along on these trips because this person was connected to me both personally and professionally and, quite frankly, I couldn't come up with an excuse not to go. I'm not sure precisely how my situation relates to this movie, except insofar as it made Andrzej much more believable for me than he might otherwise have been.
- Now about that knife: there is indeed a knife in the film that predictably ends up in the water. The surprise, of course, is that this dangerous weapon is never used on a person, although there are multiple instances when its mere presence amplifies the tension considerably. And amplifying the tension, more than anything, seems to be what Knife in the Water is trying to accomplish. It's a bare-bones cross between Hitchcock's Lifeboat and his famous description of a ticking bomb under the table. Polanksi uses plenty of partial close-ups to convey emotions wordlessly while always reminding us who else may be watching. The scenery is occasionally gorgeous, although I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to go sailing after seeing this one.
