3:15 PM Screening of the film Nóż w wodzie (Knife in the Water)
by Roman Polański (Poland, 1962, 94′)
with Leon Niemczyk, Kolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz
music by Krzysztof Komeda

Knife in the Water is Roman Polanski’s first feature film, made when he was not yet thirty, and one of the most successful directorial debuts in cinema history: it was presented at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize, and was the first Polish film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film (it was beaten by Fellini’s 8½).
About to leave for a boat trip, a sports journalist and his wife pick up a young hitchhiker in their car and invite him to join them for the weekend excursion. Thus begins a 24-hour coexistence in the cramped space of a sailboat that becomes the stage for a psychological, verbal, and even physical confrontation between the two men, antagonists in a struggle that seems to have the woman’s attention as its prize, as she silently observes the virile dispute.
The soundtrack is by Krzysztof Komeda, a Polish pianist and composer considered one of the most original exponents of European jazz in the 1960s. His sextet, which included trumpeter Tomasz Stanko among others, remains one of the most valuable and innovative formations of that period. Komeda, who passed away in 1969, also wrote the music for Andrzej Wajda’s Innocent Sorcerers and Janusz Morgenstern’s Good Bye, Till Tomorrow, as well as for Polanski’s Cul-de-sac, The Fearless Vampire Killers, and Rosemary’s Baby.

5:30 PM DANILO GALLO
Danilo Gallo electric bass, bass balalaika, effects
Live soundtrack for the film Kohlhiesels Töchter (Two Sisters) by Ernst Lubitsch
(Germany, 1920, 64′)
with Jacob Tiedtke, Henny Portne, Emil Jannings, Gustav Von Wangenheim Loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Two Sisters is set in an unspecified village in Southern Bavaria, where young Xaver wants to fulfill his dream of love and marry the beautiful Gretel. However, Kohlhiesel, the girl’s father, refuses to give him his younger daughter’s hand because he doesn’t want her to marry before her older sister Liesel. Unfortunately, no one approaches Liesel because of her ugliness. Xaver sees himself as doomed, when his friend Seppel provides the solution: marry one sister first, then the other… A whirlwind of misunderstandings is guaranteed, as well as entertainment.
Danilo Gallo is one of the most versatile and highly regarded Italian bassists, at ease in various stylistic contexts. He ranges naturally from jazz to rock, from improvised music to collaborations that see music interacting with other disciplines such as theater, dance, poetry, and cinema. He is the leader or co-leader of internationally renowned groups such as Dark Dry Tears, Gallo The Roosters, Guano Padano, The Last Coat of Pink, and the project Lacy In The Sky with Diamonds (with Roberto Ottaviano and Ferdinando Faraò). Among the many musicians he has collaborated with are Uri Caine, Marc Ribot, Gary Lucas, Mike Patton, Bill Frisell, Rob Mazurek, Hamid Drake, Chris Speed, Jim Black, Wayne Horvitz, as well as Italians Enrico Rava, Roberto Ottaviano, Gianluigi Trovesi, Francesco Bearzatti, and Giancarlo Schiaffini.

In collaboration with BERGAMO FILM MEETING