Polanski: Nóz w Wodzie (1962)

(source: http://cuntcrusher.blogspot.com/2011/03/20-best-polish-movies-of-all-time-part.html)
no copyright infringement intended

I firstly saw Nóz w Wodzie sometime in the sixties. Throughout the years I forgot some details of the plot, while I kept the essential. I remained with the impression of one of the greatest movies ever. I watched many other of Polanski's works, none of them has succeeded to replace this one in my soul. Many of his movies are great, this one is unique. By the purity of his minimalism? Maybe. You see, his other works started from very generous stories, offering full potential to create great movies. This one has practically no story. A couple is driving their car toward a lake for two days of sailing, a hitch-hiker appears as of nowhere, they invite him to join, their stay on the boat is tensioned by obscure conflicting impulses, a fight takes place, the unknown guy leaves toward nowhere. Drowned (as the male believes)? Alive (as the female knows)? Or is it just the woman imagination?

After many years I encountered the movies of Kim Ki-Duk. 3-Iron made Nóz w Wodzie come to my mind. It seemed to me that both movies were sailing on the same waters. I related 3-Iron to Nóz w Wodzie, and then I related all Kim Ki-Duk films to 3-Iron. They are exploring two universes: ours, where what matters is a good job, a good car, a good house, a good marriage (to be read a spectacular wife), and the other universe, where everything is just absurd (by our standards). The hitch-hiker in the movie of Polanski, the drifter in the movie of Kim Ki-Duk, are just visitors: our reaction is of open hostility (if we are the subjects in our world), sometimes of obscure attraction (if we are rather the objects, dreaming escapes). Hostile or attracted to them, it happens the same: they remain just visitors, we'll never know anything about them.

Nóz w Wodzie, 1962
(video by Staszek Leśny)

(Polanski)

Polanski: Ssaki (1962)

Ssaki (Mammals), made in 1962, the last short of Polanski. Opinions totally diverge. For Johan Jansens, this is the genius of Polanski (the minimal set: two colors, two men, no speech, just music). For Nora Nettlerash, there is presumably some kind of metaphor going on, but there is no point in looking for it. I wouldn't look here for a metaphor, though. The word should be: minimal. That's it: minimal here means even no idea. Is it genial or it sucks? Who cares? It's just visual poetry, playing on the white.

(video by thprfssnl1)

(Polanski)

Polanski: Gruby i Chudy (1961)

(http://www.zbroiowisko.pl/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2985)

Gruby i Chudy (The Fat and the Lean), from 1961, made in France by Polanski. He plays the lean guy. The city at hand, however impossible to reach, is Paris. After his success with Nóż w Wodzie, the lean guy will reach Paris for good.

Gruby i Chudy - Part 1
(video by zmeul clandestin)

Gruby i Chudy - Part 2
(video by zmeul clandestin)

(Polanski)

Back to Polanski: Where Angels Fall (1959)

(http://www.ourphorum.com/directed-by-roman-polanski-t94273.html)

Zdzisława Skowrońska recommended me this movie made by Polanski in 1959: Gdy Spadaja Anioly (Where Angels Fall). It was his diploma production. The old woman is played by Polanski himself.

Some reviewers considered this very distinct among the other movies of Polanski, either earlier or made after. I dare to relate it to Nóż w Wodzie though (as I did with the other earlier films). Again there are the two worlds. Ours, remembered in twenty minutes, when you are too old and too aware that no hopes fulfill, no dreams come true, life is nothing but shit. And theirs, the ones that live in another universe and come sometimes to visit us. And their visit makes sense to us only when no hopes, no dreams can support us anymore. Angels come only when you are too aware about the shit of your life. And they come exactly there, in the shit of your life.

Paul Tillich was right: you find God only after you have lost all.

Gdy Spadaja Anioly
(video by slowphoto)

(Polanski)

Polanski: Rozbijemy Zabawe (1957)

(http://ambinet.pl/film/plakat/6367/rozbijemy_zabawe_.htm)

Rozbijemy Zabawe (Break Up The Dance) made by Polanski in 1957: the party was real and the thugs were real, hired by the young director for this movie. So the partiers were really beaten. Polanski was about to be expelled from the film school. The splendid iconoclasm of the New Wave everywhere it emerged: think Skolimowski, think Godard, think Oshima. Their disdain for old conventions, for any conventions, for old masters, for any masters, for old art, for any art. The movie that's anti-movie.

Decades earlier Bunuel foresaw the New Wave with his Chien Andalou. Decades later Van Sant would demonstrate New Wave was over, with Gerry. While the tension between reality and artistic rendering of reality remained a constant in the great cinema. Think at today's Kiarostami or Panahi, for instance.

(video by yourlipstick)

(Polanski)

Polanski: Lampa (1959)

(http://thebuddyhollyempire.blogspot.com/)

Well, this short calls in mind rather Rosemary's Baby and similar. Polanski was not particularly proud of his Lampa, however it greatly catches a pervert, claustrophobic atmosphere: it's the craziness of Baroque played down to a small doll shop, it's a superb horror movie placed in a universe of toys.

(video by thprfssnl1)

(Polanski)

Polanski: Usmiech Zebiczny (1957)

(http://123nonstop.com/pictures/Usmiech_zebiczny)

Another short of Polanski from 1957. May I say something? Related to the universe of Knife in the Water, of course. Is here a window to another world? A world of promising naked women who suddenly change into men with nasty smiles? And our world, pervert, voyeuristic world.

Uśmiech zębiczny
(video by thprfssnl1)

(Polanski)

Polanski: Morderstwo (1957)

(http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8FDF11A877AD2E29&search_query=roman+polanski+short)

No spare moments in this short made by young Polanski (he was 24 in 1957). Each moment is rigorously motivated in the logic of the movie. No spare space, either: each bit of space that comes on the screen is rigorously motivated. Effective, matter of fact, that's what comes in mind. No country for useless moments. No country for useless space.

(video by thprfssnl1)

I'm tempted to think at all short movies made by young Polanski as related to his Knife in the Water. Two worlds completely distinct: ours, and theirs. Where does this murderer come from, where is he going? Why is he killing? The same questions could be put for the young from Knife in the Water, all his actions seem totally unmotivated for the other male, obviously belonging to our world. Kim Ki-Duk is also describing such strange encounters with guys who seem to just be visiting our world.


(Polanski)

Polanski: Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958)

(http://mubi.com/films/two-men-and-a-wardrobe)

I remember the Roadside Picnic of Strugatzky brothers: what happens if some visitors come here? Nothing much, from our perspective, they are too small sized, or too weird, or too annoying. They carry a wardrobe, or they come to clean our homes without our knowledge (like in the movie of Kim Ki-Duk), oh, and they are smiling like freaks. And they go back, toward nowhere, because for us anything that's not our universe is nowhere.

My friend Danu brought to my attention this short made by Polanski in 1958. It's a small miracle, this movie, and its universe is so close to Nóż w Wodzie: two people come from nowhere with an absurd (?) wardrobe, nobody accepts them, they will eventually go back to nowhere. They are like visitors from another planet, it's the collision of two worlds: ours, ignoring them at best, hostile at worst, theirs, the pure imperium of the sea (or maybe from that border where sea meets heaven). Thanks Danu!

Dwaj ludzie z szafą
(video by superyiyi)

By the way, Polanski has here a cameo.

(Polanski)

Polanski

Polanski in 1979
photo: Snap/Rex Features
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/29/roman-polanski-hunted-underage-sex)

Polanski has made great movies. I think his first feature film, Nóż w Wodzie (Knife in the Water), is THE masterpiece. Some others would consider other of his creations more powerful. Maybe. Matter of taste. In Nóż w Wodzie he shortly touched divinity. That's it. Kirkegaard famously said that a priest should preach only once and then be put in mental asylum, otherwise he's not a true priest.

• Usmiech Zebiczny (1957)
• Rozbijeny Zabawe (1957)
  
• Morderstwo (1957)
• Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958)
• Lampa (1959)
• Where Angels Fall (1959)
• Gruby i Chudy (1961)
• Ssaki (1962)
• Nóz w Wodzie (1962)
  

(Filmofilia)