Stockholm Film Festival

There is no natural hierarchical order. Everything can change and be uprooted through the one the subordinate, going through a learning process. The order may still be at hierarchical- but the one at the top is replaced by someone else. No wonder that Polanski's first feature film annoyed Gomulka and the Polish leadership. Precisely because it so obviously isolated itself from a tangible social situation and focused on three individuals, its power as a moral parable seems to have become extra large and threatening to a stale society. First of all though it is an impressive debut and a powerful psychological chamber play which has withstood the test of time. Aboard a sailing boat, a married couple find themselves together with a young hitch-hiker who has forced them to pick him up on their way to the harbour. The man, middle-aged cynic Andrzej, a tired revolutionary, sees the forced stop as a challenge. He invites the young and apparently completely inexperienced man to the sailing trip. He is there to learn discipline in the cramped conditions of the boat which is ruled by Andrzej, the captain. During the cruise of the Mazurian lake system the two men fight a delicate psychological war against each other, with the bikini-clad wife as an unspoken trophy for the victor. Erotic temptation and covered threats are present on deck and in the cabin - even during a quiet game of spillikins. It is no coincidence that the beautiful wife carries the same name as the boat. The script was written together with an angry young poet, who soon was to become another one of the great directors of Polish films, Jerzy Skolimowski. The piano player Krzystof Komedamade the music - here accompanying Swede Bernt Rosengren's beautiful tenor saxophone tunes. 

Orig. titel

noz w wodzie

Medverkande

Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz

Producent

Stanislaw Zylewicz

Manus

Roman Polanski, Jakub Goldberg, Jerzy Skolimowski

Foto

Jerzy Lipman

Musik

Krzysztof Komeda, Bernt Rosengren

Talat språk

Polish

 

Andra filmer från sektionen Tribute

Se alla festivalfilmer från 1999