I wanted my first feature film to be cool, brain-worked, construed, and precisely, almost formalistically constructed. It was to resemble a classical thriller: a married couple take on board of their yacht a passenger who then vanishes in mysterious circumstances. My idea from the very start was to show a conflict-rich interaction between characters confined in a limited space. (Roman Polański, Roman. Warszawa 1989)
The fascinating artistic effect of 'Nóż w wodzie' is the result of teamwork involving collective improvisation. The style of the picture seems to have been shaped chiefly by a quartet composed of Roman Polanski as director (bandleader and arranger of it all) and co-writer; Jerzy Skolimowski as co-script writer and superb dialogue writer; Jerzy Lipman as cinematographer; and Krzysztof Komeda as composer and performer of the score. In short: 'all stars'. It is to them that the film owes its intense atmosphere, spontaneity, vibration, colour and drive (Marek Hendrykowski Kwartalnik Filmowy, 1997).
As tension and antagonisms grow, Komeda's music intensifies the nervousness, vagueness, irony that has marked the characters' style from the start. A conflict of ambition escalates between the two men, while the woman seems no more than a catalyst accelerating the violent, uncontrolled expressions of their bruised egos. But then there is the conflict between her and the husband, one that we guess to be there from the start without knowing its nature or causes. The explanation arrives unexpectedly through music - the key to the riddle is provided by the lyrics of the song sung by the woman at her husband's request. She sings about the useless words between people who lied to each other and loved each other poorly. The music uses one of jazz motives that recur throughout the film. From then on each instrumental rendering of that theme brings to mind the chorus 'We have loved each other poorly... (Alicja Helman, Na ścieżce dźwiękowej. O muzyce w filmie / On the Soundtrack: Film Music, Kraków 1968).
