The synopsis of the film is roughly as follows: A young couple (Andrei and Christina) traveling by car meet a poor college student who hitchhiking, and they come to on a lake. The arrogant Andrei gets into an argument with the college student and knocks him into the water. Andrei was afraid that if the college student drowned, he would be implicated, so he was reluctant to search for the groundwater. At this time, the college student sneaked onto the boat with only Christina alone. Christina was very happy to see that he was still alive, and expressed her sincere apologies to him on behalf of her husband. College students also understand Christina's repressed pain as the wife of a vulgar arrogant. In the collision and blending of the two hearts, a momentary erotic impulse was produced. Then the college students left. Andrei came out of the water with nothing, not knowing whether to turn himself in at the police station or go home. Christina told him everything that happened, but he refused to believe it. He started the car, not knowing where to go. The film ends just as casually as it begins. As if a gust of wind blows by, we try to capture and retain it, but it has disappeared without a trace. But it definitely left traces of where it came from, like our messed up hair, the grit in our eyes.
Brian once praised that "The Old Man and the Sea" is full of symbols everywhere, and "Knife in the Water" also deserves such praise: the picturesque morning and evening constitute a world opposite to the chaotic secular world, and the tone of the whole film is fresh and elegant. On the other hand, it implies the praise of nature and human nature; the crossroads symbolize the complexity and unpredictability of life; the important prop in the film, the jackknife played by college students, reflects the young man who is not deeply involved in the world. Dangerous alert; he sighed repeatedly: Once in the water, the knife is useless. This expresses his pessimism, which is the same as Christina's prediction for his future. It is with such a trivial knife that Polanski strongly supports his narrative. The college student's skilled knife skills aroused the hostess's interest and goodwill, and at the same time aroused her husband's inexplicable jealousy. This resentment prompted him to hide the college student's knife, a disrespectful behavior that angered the college student and made everything happen. When we watch the film in its entirety, we will find that the combination of its external loose structure and its internal rigor is so perfect. And the huge tension and infinite charm of the film are also born from this: it ties a thousand weights to a single strand of hair!
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