mmmmmmmrmrmrmrm

So she has settled into a routine of incredible sloth, which is pesky, but not such a bad idea. Ahh well it is a good time of the year for such a thing, the incredibly mild weather not withstanding.

I watched one of the earliest Roman Polanski movies earlier this week. Laziness and spite have kept the update from manifesting itself with fire and brimstone. That happens when I put these things up. Really! It's a pain to get that out of your clothes too, let me tell you.
Also, I was lent a most excellent book, that kept me busy for 2 whole days. For this I am eternally grateful. My tolerance for crap books has worn painfully thin. "My Dark Places" by James Ellroy, was the book in question, and it was quite an ride. This was perhaps the first "non-fiction" book i've ever read. Welll it is the only one I can remember anyway. Stupid brain. Quite a gripping narrative overlaid on the authors life. Obviously these things took place, but the prose is fictional? Hmmm The concept of non fictional writing is somewhat alien to me. Much like how a documentary can easily fall out of neutrality, the very act of creating a narrative places subtle guides as to how we should interpret various "facts." Word choice, sentence structure, punctuation can influence the reader.

Regardless, it was gripping and gritty in a very dragnet sort of way; and like i said my tolerance is low, and i still devoured the book. You can consider this a recommendation.

So back to the movie: "Knife in the Water." Tense, dark, uncomfortable. A couple pick up a hitchhiker and take him on a boat ride. Simple enough, what transpires between the man and the young hitchhiker is a near lethal power struggle. Each tries to assert his ego and power over the other. The Man is arrogant and egotistical. He acts as the captain of his boat and quickly orders the young man around. As he explains life on a boat, he tells stories of how he learned to sail. His teacher was also merciless and cruel.

The power struggle takes place with words and attitudes, glances here and there, disdainful laughter. Throughout the movie, you have this gnawing unease that terrible violence will break out at any moment. It only gets more intense when the hitchhiker reveals the large knife that he carries around to cut through bush when hiking around. A massive blade slides out of the black handle, like a vertical switchblade. *Schlik*

As the tension mounts, the knife makes more and more appearances, and is used in ways that hint at more violence. Cutting, the games where you stab between your fingers rapidly, thrown at a cutting board. After running aground, and a storm, the 3 people settle in for the night. The woman and the young man aren't able to sleep and get an early start fixing the sails after the nights accident. The man wakes up from their noises and grabs the knife from the cutting board where it was thrown the night before. He puts it in his bathrobe pocket and goes up on the deck. Repairs and nearly finished and the young man is ready to leave, after being put through the ordeal the day before. He wonders where his knife is, the man answers that it is in his pocket. The young man would like it back, but the older man teases him with the knife. Heolding it threateningly, he tosses it at the mast thinking it will stick like the cutting board. It bounces off, and slides into the water. The young man order the older man to jump in after it, he is greeted only with laughter. He attempts to punch the old man, but is dodged. He tries again, and gets knocked off the boat. The young man said earlier that he couldn't swim, so the woman is frantic that he will drown. The old man is confident that he can swim, but the woman swims over to where he fell in. The man drops anchor and swims over to help as she cannot find him. There is a buoy nearby and they think he must be holding onto it. They swim around but do not see him hinding underwater. They both swim back to the boat and argue about whether they should call the police. The old man is frustrated at the idea and jumps off and swims away in disgust.

We see the young man finally surface and swim back to the boat. The woman is alone and crying. He climbs on board shivering in his clothes. They have an affair. And she drops him off on the way back to the dock. She meets up with the old man and they get in the car and drive away. She tells him that the boy was alive, and that she cheated on him with the boy. The old man is so confident in his version of reality that he doesn't believe her. He is going to drive to the police station. The film ends at a fork in the road, with the car in the middle. The man cannot make up his mind. He ultimately was defeated by the young man.


The movie, was black and white. It had an incredible jazz soundtrack, and was shot in a manner that reminded me very strongly of any number of creeepy Bergman films. It was fantastic.