'Knife in the Water' is a great first feature film

Knife in the Water (1962)
Starring: Jolanta Umecka, Leon Niemczyka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz

Director: Roman Polanski

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A businessman (Niemczyka) invites a hitchhiker (Malanowicz) to spend the weekend with himself and his wife (Umecka) on their small yacht. The two men soon begin to compete for the woman's attention and to engage in a rapidly escalating battle to prove who is the most macho.

"Knife in the Water" is in a category of movies that I generally can't bear to watch: It's a story of people in a cramped space who tear each other apart on a psychological level for no reason other to tear each other apart. The better the acting and cinematic craftsmanship, the more uncomfortable the film is for me to watch. 

For example, I recognize "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966) and "Boys in the Band" (1970) as some of the very best movies I've seen, but they are not films I would watch again unless I have to for some professional (or blogging) reason. Everything about both pictures is excellent and that's what makes them so hard to watch.

I don't like watching people tear each other apart for no reason other than to tear each other apart, especially when there isn't a character that I can cast as the villain of the piece. I watch movies for the entertainment, not to watch suffering for the sake of suffering. This is the same reason why I couldn't stand those "torture porn" films that were all the rage during the early 2000s.

With all that said, I recognize "Knife in the Water" is well-acted and well-filmed. Polanski (and/or his director of photography) did a brilliant job framing scenes so even when the characters were on the deck of the boat, with an expansive horizon ahead, things felt claustrophobic even though the surroundings were open and airy.  

Similarly, the acting is universally excellent--generally restrained and in perfect keeping with the slow burn of the film's story. The calm demeanor of the characters, coupled with the way they are clearly trying to get under each others skin, along with the knowledge that none of them have anywhere to escape to when the inevitable explosion of rage happens.

The pacing of the film is immaculate almost up the very end... and perhaps even at that point. It felt to me like the aftermath of the eventual confrontations, as well as the lead-up to the film's cryptic ending felt like it dragged a bit. I don't know if that sense was just my reaction to the conflicts in the film mostly having been resolved, or if it was my unfulfilled expectation that there would be an additional twist.

"Knife in the Water" was Roman Polanski's first feature-length film, and it shows that he had a great eye for framing scenes from the very beginning, as well as pacing the story for maximum building of tension. As mentioned above, he doesn't quite manage to deliver a solid ending--we can see how much he improved as a storyteller in the similarly-structured "Cul-de-Sac" a couple years later--but this is still a very well-mounted film. It's also a fine example of what a talented filmmaker can do with a limited budget, and it's worth examining by would-be filmmakers to this day.

Still relevant, sixty years later

The Fat and the Thin (1961)
Starring: Roman Polanski and André Katelbach
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A scrawny slave (Polanski) labors to keep his slovenly, obese master (Katelbach) happy... until one day, he decides to escape to the promise of a better life in the city. His master, however, has a plan to keep him obedient and trapped...

Great works of art continue to feel relevant decades and centuries after they were made. The relevancy may or may not relate to the circumstances under which the work was created, nor the message the creator was trying to convey, but the fact that it speaks loudly to future generations and continues to feel fresh is the hallmark of an artistic masterpiece.

"The Fat and the Thin", one of the first works Roman Polanski completed after leaving his homeland of Poland for France. Sixty years after its release, this feels like it could have been made yesterday. The events of this absurdist silent comedy can be taken as an allegory for several different social conditions, most of which originate with power structures and how they can be abused. (One can even see the film as a statement about commercial 

As with all short films from the dawn of Polanski's career, "The Fat and the Thin" is a silent movie, and one so well-executed that no dialog would even be needed if it wasn't, nor were any intertitles required. Everything the audience needs to know is communicated by the actions of the characters on the screen. The only problem with this film is that it drags a little close to the halfway mark. I understand that Polanski was trying to drive home the sense of drudgery and boredom that slave felt, but he was perhaps just a little too effective... or maybe not effective enough. Regardless, the film could have benefitted from some trimming in the middle. 

 But why don't you take a look at the film for yourself by clicking below? Watching this true classic from one of the 20th century's best filmmakers is well worth it; maybe you can even leave a comment below with a few words about whether or not you think "The Fat and the Thin" still has relevance today, and why.

Roman Wives #3: Emmanuelle Seigner

 Emmanuelle Seigner was born in Paris in 1966, the daughter of a journalist and an internationally renowned photographer. She began modeling at the age of 14, landed her first film roles soon afterwards.

By the age of 20, Seigner was beginning to climb the ladder to international stardom, having appeared in a few French dramas and playing teenaged characters younger than her actual age.

In 1988, she was cast opposite Harrison Ford in the Roman Polanski-directed thriller "Frantic", and it was while working on this film that the two fell in love. Within a year, they were married--despite Polanski being 33 years her senior. (Once again, Polanski was robbing the cradle...)

While Seinger has maintained a thriving film career separate from her husband, the pair's relationship has been fruitful on both the romantic and professional front. Seinger starred in some of Polanski's most successful and/or acclaimed films--such as "Venus in Furs" (2013), "The Ninth Gate" (1999), "Bitter Moon" (1992), and the aforementioned "Frantic" (1988).

The couple have been together almost 33 years now--their wedding anniversary is on August 30--and they have two, now-grown, children together. By all accounts, they remain as in love with each other as they were when the first met. Seigner recently demonstrated her fierce loyalty to  her husband when she publicly condemned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts as hypocrites when they expelled Polanski as a member in 2018 while they band-wagonned with the "#MeToo" movement. (She also very publicly turned down their invitation to join the organization.)

Seigner and Polanski make their home in France, out of reach of U.S. law enforcement who still seek to imprison him because of his rape conviction. Seigner acknowledges that Polanski was found guilty of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, but she says that, to her, he has always been a wonderful husband and a great father to their children.

This post was part of the Shades of Gray Roman Polanski Month.

'Mammals' is Polanski's tribute to by-gone era

Mammals (1962)
Starring: Henryk Kluba, Michal Zolnierkiewicza, and Voytek Frykowski
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Two weirdos (Kluba and Zolnierkiewicza) take turns pulling each other on a sled across a frozen wasteland... until fatigue sets in and tempers start to flare.

"Mammals" was Roman Polanski's final short film before his career as a professional writer/director launched in earnest. Like all his shorts, it is a silent movie, as Polanski reportedly believed that dialogue would distract from important story points in a short film. Unlike the previous ones, this one is a straight-up homage to the comedy shorts of the 1910s and 1920s, with weird characters engaging in even weirder antics for inscrutable reasons.

There really isn't much of a plot here--the film is a string of loosely connected gags, some of which play amusingly with the white-out effect created by filming in black-and-white on a sunlit snowfield--but, like its main characters, the film is constantly in motion and there's not a dull second during its 10-minute running time. As a pastiche/homage to early film comedies, it's excellent... as a short film, I wish there had been a bit more of a through-line to tie the action together.

My desire for a little more story mixed in with the absurdity aside, "Mammals" is another clear demonstration of Polanski's raw talent for filmmaking, one which he would hone to unquestionable greatness as the decades progressed. (It's too bad he seems to be a terrible human being.)

Take a look at "Mammals" by clicking below. Feel free to let me and world know your take on it in the comments section.

It's Roman Polanski's birthday!

Roman Polanski--the celebrated writer, director, convicted child rapist, and fugitive from justice--turns 88 years old today.

And to close out this birthday observation, here's Mr. Polanski's theme song.

A fine silent movie with a timeless message

Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958)
Starring: Jakub Goldberga, Henryk Cluba, Barbara Lass, Stanislaw Milchalski, and Roman Polanski
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A strange pair of men emerge from the sea (Goldberga and Cluba), carrying a wardrobe. They try to get along with the people on land, but are rejected everywhere they go.

"Two Men and a Wardrobe" is a story that's equal parts amusing, sad, and infuriating. It also features a heavy dose of surreal fantasy in the form of our mysterious protagonists--the men and the wardrobe of the title--but the magic and joy that seems like it's trying to emerge in the film is, instead, crushed over and over by the vicious or indifferent citizens of the seaside town. The men are either rejected for their strangeness or outright abused. The only ray of positivity that remains by the end of the film is that the men from the sea that not had their kind natures blunted by the abusive townsfolk... but it's a nonetheless bittersweet conclusion, because the town will not benefit from it.

The message of "Two Men and a Wardrobe" isn't delivered in a subtle fashion, but it is still entertaining and clever. It's also a timeless message that is just as worth taking to heart and paying attention to--it's worthwhile to be attentive and considerate of immigrants or visitors who find themselves in a strange land or culture where they don't understand the "rules". If no one is willing to take the time to engage with them and explain what they are doing wrong or how they might be able to fit in, whatever contributions those individuals might be able to make will be lost. 

This is an early film from writer/director Roman Polanski that's well-worth the 15 minutes it will take to watch it. There are a few badly executed edits (exclusively involving the scenes by the seashore), but otherwise it's an effective and entertaining silent film 

 

  

Roman Wives #2: Sharon Tate

Born in 1943, Sharon Tate's early life was that of a nomadic U.S. Army Brat. While her father was stationed in Italy, she began modeling and landed some work as an extra in Italian movies. This led to her being signed to a seven-year contract with the Filmways production company in the early 1960s. After giving her some practice as a recurring character on "The Beverly Hillbillies" television series from 1963 to 1965, Filmways began giving her larger parts in films, and her star rose swiftly.

In 1967, Tate met Roman Polanski while working on the horror comedy "Fearless Vampire Killers"; Polanski was both the film's director and one of her co-stars. They dated briefly and got married in London in January of 1968.

Horrific tragedy struck in August of 1969 when Sharon Tate was murdered by the psychopathic cohorts of Charles Manson. A collateral victim of her murder was her unborn son, as she was eight months pregnant at the time. Polanski has stated that the slaying of his second wife turned his worldview from one of boundless optimism to eternal pessimism.

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This post was part of the Shades of Gray Roman Polanski Month.

Irony and twists abound in "The Lamp"

The Lamp (1959)

Starring: K. Romanowski
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A dollmaker (Romanowski) modernizes his shop with unfortunate results.

"The Lamp" was made by future super-star director Roman Polanski when he was still in film school. It is one of his first films that use sound... and it does so with varying success. It's still basically a silent movie, but it uses sound effects to note the passage of time, as well as the power of electricity when the dollmaker's shop is wired for such.

The reason to watch this film is for the creative cinematography and lighting that infuses a great level of spookiness into the elderly dollmaker and his shop, as well as the creepiest anthromophication of an old-school fuse box you're ever likely to see. The film is further elevated by the way it plays with the audience's expectations, and, finally, by an ending that's ironic on many different levels. Polanski's takent for filmmaking is on full display, even in this very early work.

Check out "The Lamp", below. I think you'll find it well worth a few minutes of your time.

(On a purely personal note, I found myself struggling to not interpret this film in light of Polanski's predilection for wanting to control and have sex with young girls. It adds new levels of possible meaning to the film, some of them really disturbing, some of them showing more self-reflection that I imagine a sick person like Polanski is capable of. It can be hard to separate the art from the artist...)

Roman Wives #1: Barbara Lass

Barbara Lass was born Barbara Kwiatkowski in a small country village during the German occupation of Poland in 1940. At the age of 17, she won a beauty contest and landed the starring role in "Eve Wants to Sleep" (1958). 

Barbara left Poland in 1959, changed her last name to the more-internationally-friendly "Lass" and found success in the broader European film market. Throughout the 1960s and into the 1990s, she appeared in German, French, and Italian films. Staunchly opposed to the Communist dictatorship in her country of origin, Barbara also lent her voice to Polish-language broadcasts of censorship free news by Radio Free Europe.

Barbara met future superstar writer/director Roman Polanski in 1958, while he was wrapping up film school and she was wrapping up "Eve Wants to Sleep". They were married in 1959, in Paris.

The union between Lass and Polanski was short-lived. The couple divorced in 1962, after roughly two-and-a-half years. Some sources state that Lass cheated on Polanski with a French actor, but others imply that it was Polanski's wandering eye toward young girls that caused the split.

Barbara Lass suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away in 1995 at the age of 54.

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 This post was part of the Shades of Gray Roman Polanski Month.

A moment with a pervert

Toothy Smile (1957)
Starring: Nikola Todorow
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A man (Todorow) going out for the evening stops to ogle his topless neighbor, but learns he should have stopped while he was ahead.

"Toothy Smile" is a short film made by Roman Polanski while he was at film school in Poland. It's a silent film, although there is one moment where it really needed sound (or at least a shot including a different angle on the action). 

It runs just shy of two minutes, so it will take almost no time at all for you to check it out--it's well worth it. My summary might make it sound a little more dramatic than it actually is, but everything here shows that Polanski had excellent mastery of cinematic storytelling from the beginning.

Note: Tuesdays in August of 2021, there'll be a review of one of Roman Polanski's short films at this blog. This is in observation of his 88th birthday, which is on the 18th. While he may be a shitty human being (what with him being a convicted child rapist who refuses to face punishment for his crime), he's made some pretty good films that are worth checking out.

'Cul-de-sac' is darkly comedic

Cul-de-sac (1966)
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Lionel Stander, Françoise Dorléac, Jack MacGowran, and William Franklyn

Director: Roman Polanski

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A wealthy couple, George and Teresa (Pleasence and Dorléac) are taken hostage in their isolated home by a wounded criminal (Stander) on the run and hoping for rescue by his boss. 

"Cul-de-sac" is one of those movies where characters are forced together in a situation and then proceed to tear each other apart emotionally, as interpersonal power dynamics move back and forth between them like a storm-swelled tide. It's near equal parts comedy and drama... although the comedy is almost all of a very cruel variety. 

Like almost all movies of this kind, it's a film that can only be successful if the characters are being portrayed by the right actors, who also happen to be extremely talented. Unlike most films of this kind, there is a very real sense that one or more characters will be brutally murdered by the time the end credits roll--and who and how many changes repeatedly as the story unfolds. 

So, given my comment above, is this film successful? Yes--because the three leads are absolutely fantastic in their parts. 

Lionel Stander and Donald Pleasence are playing the sorts of characters you've seen them portray before--Stander's once again a small-time hood ("so this is what Max did before he met Jonathan Hart", I thought to myself at one point) and Pleasence is the high-strung, fussy weirdo we're seen in slasher films,  comedies, and war movies. 

Meanwhile Françoise Dorléac provides them with a solid background to be quirky against with a character that is both the most grounded and most inscrutable. She seems to be very much out of George's league (and at least half his age), is clearly having an affair, and doesn't hesitate to mock him whenever the opportunity arises; she shows every indication of being a trophy wife who is in love with George's money rather than George. But, at several points during the film--and especially during its conclusion--Dorléac seems very protective of George and shows a concern that goes beyond just love of his money. This makes Teresa a very interesting character, and Dorléac's great skill as an actress makes the character even more-so. She was the perfect actress for a movie of this kind, since she shows an equal ability for comic timing and dramatic flourishes. She was also equally good, whether she was the center of a scene or just being there for someone else to play off.

Writer/director Roman Polanski's best films are centered on relationships between people, and he does an excellent job here--not surprising since he co-wrote the script. According to a couple different sources, though, this was a troubled production. The remote location resulted in some very uncomfortable days for actors and crew alike, and Polanski's relationship with people both in front of and behind the camera was stormy at times. In fact, the making of this film was so stressful for Polanski that he reportedly considered giving up on directing. The tension and frustrations felt by actors and crew may well have ended up on screen, lending even more power to the performances of the three principles, especially during several fantastic scenes that take place on the beaches.

Although "Cul-de-sac" isn't a perfect movie--some of the interactions with characters who aren't the main three don't make a whole lot of sense and lack any sort of payoff--but the the absolute brilliance that we see every time Stander, Pleasence, and Dorléac share the screen together more than make up for any shortcomings elsewhere in the picture. Whether their characters are being playful, threatening, or trying to emotionally destroy each other, we're treated to great performances by talented actors. It's a shame that Dorléac died at just 25 years of age shortly after making this film, because she would have undoubtedly continued to grow as an actress and would have been remembered as one of the all-time greats.

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August 2021 is Roman Polanski Month here at Shades of Gray. Check back  every Tuesday and Wednesday for posts relating to his work and his life (and to watch some of his early works).