Double Feature: KNIFE IN THE WATER & 40th Anniversary! MACBETH January 27, 2011

Double Feature: KNIFE IN THE WATER, 1962, Janus/Criterion, 94 min. Director Roman Polanski’s debut feature, co-written by Jerzy Skolimowski (DEEP END), is one of the most claustrophobic, tension-building psychodramas of the 1960s, whittled to three characters - a husband and wife (Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka) and the hitchhiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz) they pick up on their way to a remote lake to go sailing. Once aboard the yacht, sexual tension rears its ugly head and grows gradually from aggressive rough-housing to outright violence. Not released until late 1963 in the U.S., the film was nominated for a 1964 Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar. "…a slow-burning exploration of jealousy, spite and middle-age…creeping tensions and Oedipal undertow…a film whose scenes and themes stick with you." - Andy Jacobs, BBC. In Polish with English subtitles. [35mm]
Trailer

40th Anniversary! MACBETH, 1971, Sony Repertory, 140 min. After several months of deep depression and grieving over the murder of wife Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski stunned audiences with his dread-inducing cinematic rendition of the Shakespeare play. Jon Finch and Francesca Annis star as the ill-fated Macbeths in this vividly atmospheric, hyperbolically violent classic. With Martin Shaw as Banquo. [35mm]
Trailer

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