Title: Polanski's Stellar Debut
Product review: Knife in the Water, Roman Polanski's first film (1962), is widely considered to be one of the two greatest directorial debuts in film history next to Citizen Kane.An alpha male and his young, voluptuous wife pick up a hitchhiker and invite him for a day of sailing. The two roosters spend the following day and night posturing for the attention of the sumptuous female. A challenging premise for a 94 minute film? Most assuredly but Polanski pulls it off nicely. Leon Niemczyk is superb as the cocksure Andrezej. Jolanta Umecka, in her film debut, is tantalizing as the sexually ripe Krystyna. Zygmunt Malanowicz gives a decent performance as the unsure, young drifter. Not satisfied with Malanowicz's voice, Polanski ended up dubbing over it with his own. Polish jazz legend Krzysztof Komeda's score was cool at the time but rankles today. Jerzy Lipman's cinematography is outstanding. This edition has some great bonus features including several early Polanski shorts.
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