The summary refers to the famous TV commercial in which the product - recording tape - was supposedly so good that the buyer would be able to tell if the sound he heard from the tape was real or recorded. That about describes this film.
Film director Roman Polanski's explanation right before the beginning of this early short film of his made me wonder how much of the action was acted and how much was real. He made it sound like he just let these "hooligans" crash a party and then watched as they caused havoc....and filmed it. Then, while posting this review, I see on the "trivia" notes here on IMDb, that it actually was real and the young filmmaker almost got tossed out of school for it! That's stunning. Nowadays, those kids that were beaten up would have big lawsuits against the school.
I still have some doubts about this, however, as the fights seemed so hokey. People don't punch like that. Also, the people at the dance were so bizarre looking, it looked like a scene out of a David Lynch movie. These weren't just teen at a dance but some older and weird-looking adults as well. It was an odd mixture. This whole thing is very bizarre.
I thought the best shot of the film was the slow panning of the "hooligans" feet at the bottom of the iron gate. That was chilling. You just knew the "barbarians were at the gate" and ready to rumble.
You can see this early Polanski effort on disc number 2 of the "Knife In The Water" DVD.
Film director Roman Polanski's explanation right before the beginning of this early short film of his made me wonder how much of the action was acted and how much was real. He made it sound like he just let these "hooligans" crash a party and then watched as they caused havoc....and filmed it. Then, while posting this review, I see on the "trivia" notes here on IMDb, that it actually was real and the young filmmaker almost got tossed out of school for it! That's stunning. Nowadays, those kids that were beaten up would have big lawsuits against the school.
I still have some doubts about this, however, as the fights seemed so hokey. People don't punch like that. Also, the people at the dance were so bizarre looking, it looked like a scene out of a David Lynch movie. These weren't just teen at a dance but some older and weird-looking adults as well. It was an odd mixture. This whole thing is very bizarre.
I thought the best shot of the film was the slow panning of the "hooligans" feet at the bottom of the iron gate. That was chilling. You just knew the "barbarians were at the gate" and ready to rumble.
You can see this early Polanski effort on disc number 2 of the "Knife In The Water" DVD.