Roman Polanski KNIFE in the WATER/ NÓŻ W WODZIE (1962, 94 Min)
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October 13, 2009 (XIX:7) Roman Polanski KNIFE IN THE WATER/ NÓŻ W WODZIE (1962, 94 min) Directed by Roman Polanski Screenplay by Jerzy Skolimowki Produced by Stanislaw Zylewicz Original Music by Krzysztof Komeda Cinematography by Jerzy Lipman Leon Niemczyk...Andrzej Jolanta Umecka...Krystyna Zygmunt Malanowicz...Young Boy Anna Ciepielewska...Krystyna (voice) Roman Polanski...Young Boy (voice) Nominated Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture ROMAN POLANSKI (18 August 1933, Paris, France—) has acted in 36 films, some of which are Caos calmo (2008), Zemsta/The Revenge (2002), Una pura formalità/A Pure Formality (1994), En attendant Godot (1989), Le locataire/The Tenant (1976), Some of his writing credits are: Cztery noce z Anna/Four Nights Chinatown (1974), Dracula cerca sangue di vergine... e morì di with Anna (2008), 30 Door Key (1991), Torrents of Spring (1989), sete!!!/Andy Warhol’s Dracula (1974), The Magic Christian (1969), Mesmerized (1986), Success Is the Best Revenge (1984), Dance of the Vampires/The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Nóz w Moonlighting (1982), Rece do gory/Hands Up! (1981), The Shout wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962), Le gros et le maigre/The Fat and (1978), Poslizg/A Slip-up (1972), Deep End (1971), Le départ the Lean (1961), Zezowate szczescie/Bad Luck (1960), Gdy spadaja (1967), Bariera/Barrier (1966), Walkower (1965), Nóz w anioly/When Angels Fall Down (1959), Lampa/The Lamp (1959), wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962), Pieniadze albo zycie/Your Money Dwaj ludzie z szafa/Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958), or Your Life (1961), Niewinni czarodzieje/Innocent Sorcerers Zaczarowany rower/Magical Bicycle (1955). He has directed 29 (1960), Hamles/Little Hamlet (1960). films, including The Ghost (2010), Oliver Twist (2005), The Pianist (2002), Death and the Maiden (1994), Frantic (1988), Pirates LEON NIEMCZYK (15 December 1923, Warsaw, Poland—29 (1986), Tess (1979), Le locataire/The Tenant (1976), Chinatown November 2006, Lódz, Poland, lung cancer) acted in 247 films and (1974), Che?/Diary of Forbidden Dreams (1972), The Tragedy of tv series, among them, "Ranczo" (18 episodes, 2006-2007), Szatan z Macbeth (1971), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Dance of the siódmej klasy (2006), Inland Empire (2006), "Na dobre i na zle" (37 Vampires/The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Cul-de-sac (1966), episodes, 1999-2003), Ubu król/King Ubu (2003), Repulsion (1965), Nóz w wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962), Le gros Nienasycenie/Insatiability (2003), Chlopaki nie placza/Boys Don’t et le maigre/The Fat and the Lean (1961), Gdy spadaja Cry (2000), Polska smierc/Polish Death (1995), Blood of the anioly/When Angels Fall (1959), Lampa/The Lamp (1959), Dwaj Innocent (1994), Straszny sen Dzidziusia Górkiewicza/The Terrible ludzie z szafa/Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958), Morderstwo/A Dream of Babyface Gorkiewicz (1993), "W labiryncie" (42 Murderer/A Murder (1957), Rower/Bicycle (1955). He won a Best episodes, 1988-1991), Zabic na koncu/To Kill at the End (1990), Director Oscar for The Pianist (2003); and was nominated Best Ostatni prom/The Last Ferry (1989), Epizod Berlin West/Episode in Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium- West Berlin (1986), Odwet/Revenge (1983), "Archiv des Todes" (13 Rosemary's Baby (1969); Best Director- Chinatown (1975); Best episodes, 1980), Wyrok smierci/The Death Sentence (1980), Anton, Director- Tess (1981); and Best Picture- The Pianist (2003). der Zauberer/Anton the Magician (1978), Potop/The Deluge (1974), Dziadek do orzechów/The Nutcracker (1967), Bicz JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI (5 May 1938, Lódz, Poland—) wrote 23 bozy/God’s Whip (1967), Panienka z okienka/A Lady from the films, direct 22, acted in 17, produced 4 and was art director for 2. Window (1964), Nóz w wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962), Dzis w Polanski—KNIFE IN THE WATER—2 nocy umrze miasto/Tonight a City Will Die (1961), Szklana Director, scenarist and actor, born in Paris where his father, a Polish gora/The Glass Mountain (1960), Krzyzacy/Black Cross (1960), Jew, was working for a phonograph record company. His mother, Baza ludzi umarlych/The Depot of the Dead (1959), Eroica (1958), also a Polish citizen, was of Russian descent. The family moved to Godziny nadziei/The Hours of Hope (1955), Zaczarowany Krakow when Polanski was three. The war began a few years later rower/Magical Bicycle (1955), Celuloza/Cellulose (1954). and in 1940 the child watched uncomprehendingly as German soldiers built a wall across the end of the street he lived in; they JOLANTA UMECKA (no birth/death information given) acted in only were sealing off the ghetto. The following year, shortly before both 5 films: Panna zázracnica/Miraculous Virgin (1967), Pieciu/Five parents were taken off to concentration camps, his father led him to (1964), Echo (1964), Czerwone berety/Red Berets (1963), Nóz w the edge of the ghetto: “He cut the wire and told me to run.” wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962). Polanski was then eight years old. He made his way to the country where he survived the war, living outdoors on his own ZYGMUNT MALANOWICZ (4 February 1938, Wilno, Poland—) sometimes but mostly staying with a succession of Catholic peasant appeared in 37 films and TV series, among them "Londynczycy" (2 families. He sold newspapers and did odd jobs for pocket money, episodes, 2009), "Na dobre i na zle" (2 episodes, 2005), spending most of it at the movies, where he watched anti-Jewish Tulipany/Tulips (2004), Kanal (2002), Penelopy/Three Penelopes propaganda films and dubbed Hollywood pictures indiscriminately: (1988), Pobojowisko/Battlefield (1985), Katastrofa w “I didn’t care, so long as it moved.” His precocious awareness of Gibraltarze/The Crash Off Gibraltar (1984), Gdzie woda czysta i life’s randomness was sharpened one summer afternoon when he trawa zielona/Where the Water Is Pure and the Grass Is Green was gathering blackberries on a hill and some lounging German (1977), Hazardzisci/The Gamblers (1976), Ciemna rzeka/Dark soldiers loosed off a round at him, apparently by way of target River (1974), Na krawedzi/On the Edge (1973), practice. His peasant guardians tried to raise him as a Catholic but it Kopernik/Copernicus (1973), Trad/Leprosy (1971), Znaki na is perhaps not surprising that he became an atheist in his early teens. drodze/Signs on the Road (1970), Polowanie na muchy/Hunting Returning to Krakow just before the end of the war, Flies (1969), Bariera/Barrier (1966), Nackt unter Wölfen/Naked Polanski was blown through a door in one of the last of the German Among Wolves (1963), Nóz w wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962). air raids, and seriously injured. His mother, he learned, had died in Auschwitz. His father survived and returned to Krakow, but after he JERZY LIPMAN (10 April 1922, Brzesc, Poland— 10 November remarried Polanski moved into lodgings. He continued to haunt the 1983, London, England, UK) Der Tod in der Waschstraße (1982), movies and says he was much influenced by two films he saw then: Charlotte/Charlotte S. (1981), Kudenow oder An fremden Wassern Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out and Olivier’s Hamlet—both about weinen (1981), Der Poltergeist (1981), "Die Koblanks" (13 loners in a hostile world, Another of the violent episodes he attracts episodes, 1979), Und der Regen verwischt jede Spur/Tears of Blood like a lightning conductor occurred when he was sixteen: lured into (1972), Das Paradies auf der anderen Seite (1972), Psychologie des an underground bunker with the promise of a cheap racing bike, he Orgasmus/Psychology of the Orgasm (1970), Dzien was nearly killed by a man who had already murdered three people. oczyszczenia/The Day of Purification (1970), Das At about this time his father enrolled him in a Krakow Bastardzeichen/Bend Sinister (1970), Popioly/The Ashes (1965), technical school, hoping to make an electrician of him. Polanski Prawo i piesc/The Law and the Fist (1964), Rozwodów nie demurred, in 1950 transferring himself to an art school. Meanwhile bedzie/No More Divorces (1964), Gangsterzy i filantropi/Gangsters he had become interested in acting. He talked his way into a job and Philanthropists (1963), Zbrodniarz i panna/The Criminal and with a local radio station and went on to act with the Krakow the Lady (1963), Nóz w wodzie/Knife in the Water (1962), Zezowate Theatre and, beginning in 1953, in films (including Wajda’s A szczescie/Bad Luck/The Eighth Day of the Week (1960), Kanal Generation). Rejected by the State Acting School (partly, he says, (1957), Cien/Shadow (1956), Pokolenie/A Generation (1955), Kiedy because he was “too cocky”), and anxious to avoid the draft, ty spisz/While You’re Asleep (1952). Polanski then applied for entry to the famous State Film School at Lodz. After ten days of rigorous tests he was one of the six applicants accepted in 1954 for the five-year directors’ course, Apart from the rigorous training it provided, the Lodz school offered virtually continuous screenings of an immense variety of films from all periods and countries. In the heated student debates about the relative merits of these films Polanski says he allied himself with “the school of Citizen Kane.” The first of his own student films to attract attention was Rozbijemy Zabawe (Break Up the Dance, 1957), for which Polanski recruited local toughs to wreck a school party and filmed the result, narrowly escaping expulsion. In his fourth year he made the extraordinary fifteen-minute surrealist fable Dwaj ludzie z szafa (Two Men and a Wardrobe, 1958). A large, old-fashioned wardrobe rises slowly out of the sea. It is being carried by two men (Henry Kluba and Jakub Goldberg) who stagger with it to the beach. They dance with joy at their accomplishment and then lug their prize into the city.