Knife in the Water
Acclaimed by all! Roman Polanski's tense, ironic Drama!
Country
Production
Budget
$0
Box office
$0
Director
Actors
Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Roman Polanski, Anna Ciepielewska
All actors and roles (5)
All actors and roles (5)
Scenario
Producer
Camera operator
Jerzy Lipman
Composer
Krzysztof Komeda
Artist
Bolesław Kamykowski
Audition
Editing
Halina Prugar-Ketling, Stanisław Zylewicz
Whole Team (19)
Whole Team (19)
Short description
On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband's panic results in unexpected consequences.
What's left behind the scenes
- "Knife in the Water" is the first Polish film to be nominated for an Oscar.
- The film's music was composed by Krzysztof Komeda, who was playing in an underground jazz orchestra at the time. It was enough for Polanski to show the film to Krzysztof for him to illustrate certain moments. This was the first Polish film to feature jazz.
- In the scene where the Young Man climbs onto the yacht, after Christina is left alone, the non-professional actress Jolanta Umecka could not convincingly react to the Young Man's sudden appearance. Therefore, one of the assistant directors secretly fired a blank cartridge near Jolanta's ear at the right moment. This take made it into the film.
- Zygmunt Malanowicz, the actor who played the Boy, is naturally a brunette, so his hair had to be dyed white for the role.
- The film, which captured the emerging stratification of socialist society, drew criticism from Władysław Gomułka, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PZPR (according to Polanski, Gomułka threw an ashtray at the screen during a pre-premiere screening), and was banned from release by Polish censors.
- In the scene where the Young Man climbs onto the yacht after Kristina is left alone, non-professional actress Jolanta Umecka was unable to react convincingly to the Young Man's sudden appearance. Therefore, one of the assistant directors secretly fired a blank cartridge over Jolanta's ear at the right moment. This take was the one used in the final film.
- The yacht that appeared in the film previously belonged to Göring. During World War II, it was sunk in the Masurian Lakes, but then raised from the bottom and restored. Its original name is "Requin," which means "shark".
- Zygmunt Maljanowicz, the actor who played the Youth, is a brunette, so his hair had to be dyed white for the role.
- Polanski initially envisioned his co-author Jerzy Skolimowski, who had just graduated from acting school at the time, for the role of the Young Man, but the idea had to be abandoned in favor of professional actor Zygmunt Malanowicz.
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