Teeth Smile

An early short, very obviously a student effort, "Teeth Smile" offers an excellent view of the genius that marks the rest of Polanski's film career, as well as demonstrating many of the visual characteristics that he has maintained throughout. The dramatic use of lighting, shadows and sharply contrasting, asymmetrical shapes that create a surrealistic feeling to a natural setting, the claustrophobic lives of urban apartment dwellers who's privacy is insecure and violated, the odd camera angles that distort the audience's perception and reflect the distortion of the character's mind, and the sexual tension and suspense in fear of discovery are all very apparent here.

The lead character becomes an inadvertent voyeur, and then a willing one, and the audience is seduced as a co-conspirator. We are drawn to the window and enter into his perversion--the teeth of the title smile, but what is revealed in the eyes is something altogether different.

When discovery is imminent, the audience is caught with the same panicked emotions of the voyeur, and yet what ultimately prevails is the humor which in so many of Polanski's films is under-appreciated. This movie struck me as quite funny, one of his more successful efforts in the field of comedy, and it is this surprising contrast as well as the explorative stylization that I find most endearing in this short.

Availible with the Critereon edition DVD of "Knife in the Water", I believe "Teeth Smile" deserves a much wider viewing by film lovers everywhere.