Polanski's first feature film was surprising after his shorts (Two Men and a Wardrobe, 1958, and The Fat and the Lean, 1961) which employed highly abstract, symbolic language. Knife in the Water was as simple as possible. Three persons on a sailboat-a middle-aged couple and a young boy-were quite enough to develop his profound criticism of the previous generation, which represented compromises, selfishness and the loss of ideas. But Polanski is no more partial to the younger generation; he discovers that behind the hatred manifested against the establishment, the apparently indifferent young man cannot conceal his desire for integration, and for acquisition. Dry, cool narration serves a very unfriendly statement: never was a Polish film, and never was a Polanski film, so rational and transparent in its means, and deprived of symbolism. Still-or perhaps precisely for this reason-the suspense is very strong. The film concentrates on the characters' emotional instability and the three-way relationship changes constantly; it is a strange series of duels in which the partners fight to overcome each other and the final result is rather resigned. The youth is no better than the older corrupted one, because his cynicism corrupts him as well. --Yvette Biro