On his debut feature, Roman Polanski is already a master of elegant malice & menace in a compact three-hander about a day-trip at sea for a married couple and pick-up that goes wrong, but comes out right. The Polish film industry, still State controlled, but loosening up to accommodate the Polish New Wave, gave Polanski development funds, perhaps unaware this leans more toward Michelangelo Antonioni (L'AVVENTURA/’60; LA NOTTE/’61), a sort of Existential Shaggy Dog tale. Driving to their boat, a blasé, slightly put out couple stop (or rather get forcibly stopped) by a solopistic hitchhiker, a college-age jerk who piques their interest. At worse, he’ll liven things up. But the boat trip keeps drifting off course, in every possible way as a mano-a--mano pissing contest breaks out between the men after they’re too far out to turn right back. Then rough games, missing swimmers, missing rescuers, a storm that traps them overnight, lust unbound, a session of pick-up-sticks (!), and a knife for five-finger-filet before it goes overboard. (The knife in the water.) All beautifully staged (no easy thing at sea), well acted and neatly structured. The film more than just advance notice for more than sixty years of film to come. Listen closely and you’re sure to recognize Polanski doing the dub for the kid.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/DOUBLE-BILL: If you get the Criterion edition, a second disc collects Polanski’s early shorts. There's your Double-Bill. And look on Disc One for an excellent interview from 2002 that reveals Polanski at 69 as a dead ringer for Danny Kaye at 69.
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