Roman Polanski’s first three films, “The Knife in the Water”, “Repulsion” and “Cul-de-Sac”, are released on DVD and Blu-ray in a restored version. Oppressing, disturbing: the Polish filmmaker does a lot, but with an already impressive talent.
There are good ideas and bad ideas, concerning Roman Polanski. Rolling out the red carpet for her at the 2020 Caesar ceremony when there are many accusations of sexual assault against her was not the best. Re-editing his first three feature films, on the other hand, is excellent. The Knife in the Water, Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac are three master strokes, which it is fascinating to rediscover in a restored version.
Polanski was not yet a fugitive in the 1960s, but he was already running. After being disowned by his childhood country, Knife-in-the-Water Poland, he found the means in England to shoot Repulsion and then Cul-de-Sac. Born in Paris, taken to Krakow at the age of 3, parked in a ghetto during the war, Roman Polanski naturally wondered, from his first films, where and how one could feel “at home”.
