Knife in the Water (1962, Roman Polański) (Patreon)

85/100

Third viewing, last seen 1996. Anyone who's made uncomfortable by praise for Polański* (even when accompanied by the stipulation that what he did in the '70s was monstrous; I hereby so stipulate) should check out now, as I'd otherwise have virtually nothing to say; this is just formally unimpeachable, shifting visual perspective in physically close quarters (plus the Academy ratio's tight confines) with awe-inspiring precision, facility and dynamism. Compositions are often striking in themselves, but it's the cuts that truly create 90% of the tension—spatial reconfigurations so simple and yet so forceful that I spent most of the movie wondering how this seemingly fundamental approach to the medium could ever possibly have fallen out of fashion (even given the effectively permanent switch to widescreen that was underway at the time). Certainly it's ideal for this elemental power struggle, which sustains the implicit threat of violence for nearly its entire duration without ever quite actually arriving there. My one small reservation concerns Krystyna's function as a buffer zone (initially) and sexual prize (ultimately) in this generational game of ¿Quién es más macho?; the remarkably self-possessed (for an amateur) Jolanta Umecka never lets her become passive, though, and Polański keeps orchestrating shots like the one in which Krystyna leans back and fills what had been a large hunk of negative space, making the men in the distance look significantly smaller. Somehow didn't remember that the ending's completely unresolved, which is odd because the final exchange, resolving the story of the boatswain (or whatever) only to immediately negate any sense of resolution ("I don't know what happened to him"), couldn't be more perfect, especially in concert with the Godot-in-a-car final shot. Lotta competition for the title of Most Exceptional Debut**—Kane of course, Duel, Badlands, Breathless, Eraserhead—but this has to be among the contenders. 

* First time I've ever noticed that his surname has an accent in Polish. Will stick with the Anglicized version elsewhere, but that's what’s on the print of his sole Polish-language feature. 

** Does it count if the director never made another movie? Night of the Hunter would be my choice, except that calling it Laughton's "debut film" sounds weird.