14° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Tribute to a Jerzy Skolimowski
Success Is The Best Revenge
by Jerzy Skolimowski
Country: UK, UK
Year: 1984
Duration: 91'
"My son, Michael Lyndon, wrote this story about himself, which is the part he has in the film. And I wondered why a fifteenyearold boy, who is in a London school, who lives in acceptable conditions with his family in a little house in Kensington, should be so unhappy that one day he decides to paint his hair pink and go back to Poland. I thought that this initial seed was so original, simple and tragic at the same time that I wanted to develop it. Some critics assumed that the character played by Michael York was my selfportrait, which it was not, because I was trying almost to make fun of him. I was criticizing in the character what I was annoyed with in myself. The title is a pure irony, of course. I don't think the characters involved in that film have any chance of success. They are all losers. At the same time, I was almost challenging myself." (Jerzy Skolimowski, "Monthly Film Bulletin", May 1986)
"Success is the Best Revenge is an imaginary mosaic of astonishing aesthetic research, which explains why it encountered such lack of comprehension. Already present in Moonlighting, the most evident feature of Success is its irony: we find a Skolimowski who is more destructive than ever. As in Deep End and Moonlighting, here too, Skolimowski completes his portrayal of English society whose institutions he mocks through characters, both cruel and phlegmatic, thereby giving rise to scenes that are absolutely exhilarating. But Success also marks a return to the absurd, which is complementary to satire." (Olivier Curhot, "Positif", July-August 1984)
Biography
film director
Jerzy Skolimowski
(Lodz, Poland, 1938), director, screenwriter, producer, and actor, after inconsistent studies and experience as a boxer and a poet, became involved in cinema thanks to Andrzej Wajda, who encouraged him to enroll in the film school in Lodz. With Polanski, he wrote the screenplay for Knife in the Water (1962) and he debuted as a director with Rysopis (1964), which, with his next film Walk over (1965), made him one of the major exponents of the international Nouvelle Vague of the 1960s. In 1967, his film The Departure won the Golden Bear in Berlin but that same year another movie of his, Hands Up!, was censored (it was released only in 1981) and he never made another movie in his home country. Skolimowski's international career is full of risky production adventures and great masterpieces and spans various countries (Czechoslovakia, Italy, Germany, England, the United States). After the failure of King, Queen, Knave, he spent a great deal of inactive time in England and Poland, followed by the great success of his English movies The Shout (1978) and Moonlighting (1982). In 1985, he directed his first all-American movie, Lightship and he moved to the US. After returning to his homeland, in 1991 he directed his first Polish movie after Hands Up!, 30 Door Key and over the years continued to work in cinema, writing and producing the film by his two sons Józef and Michal, The Hollow Men (1993). After a long hiatus from film, he returned to directing movies in 2008 with Four Nights with Anna, presented at the Quinzaine des réalisateurs in Cannes, followed by Essential Killing (2010), Special Jury Prize in Venice; 11 Minutes (2015); and EO (2022), the Jury Prize in Cannes.
FILMOGRAFIA
Rysopis (Rysopis - Segni particolari nessuno, 1964), Walkover (1965), Bariera (Barriera, 1966), Le Départ (Il vergine, 1967), The Adventures of Gerard (Le avventure di Gerard, 1970), Deep End (La ragazza del bagno pubblico, 1970), König, Dame, Bube (Un ospite gradito... per mia moglie, 1972), The Shout (L'australiano, 1978), Ręce do gory (Mani in alto, 1981), Moonlighting (Moonlighting - Cittadini di nessuno, 1982), Success Is the Best Revenge (Il successo ad ogni costo, 1984), The Lightship (Lightship - La nave faro, 1985), Torrents of Spring (Acque di primavera, 1989), Thirty Door Key/Ferdydurke (1991), Cztery noce z Anną (Quattro notti con Anna, 2008), Essential Killing (id. 2010), 11 minut (11 Minutes, 2015), EO (2022).
Cast
& Credits
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski, Michael Lyndon.
Director of photography: Mike Fash (Technicolor).
Editor: Barrie Vince.
Music: Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer.
Regista della seconda unit`: Andrzej Kostenko.
Cast and characters: Michael York (Alexander Rodak), Joanna Szczerbic (Alicja Rodak), Michael Lyndon (Adam Rodak), Jerry Skol (Tony Rodak), Michel Piccoli (ministro francese), Anouk Aimé (Monique des Fontaines), John Hurt (Dino Montecurva), Jane Asher (dirigente della banca), Eugeniusz Haczkiewicz (Genio).
Production company: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Produttori associati: Simon Bosanquet, Barrie Vince.
Screenplay: Jerzy Skolimowski, Michael Lyndon.
Director of photography: Mike Fash (Technicolor).
Editor: Barrie Vince.
Music: Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer.
Regista della seconda unit`: Andrzej Kostenko.
Cast and characters: Michael York (Alexander Rodak), Joanna Szczerbic (Alicja Rodak), Michael Lyndon (Adam Rodak), Jerry Skol (Tony Rodak), Michel Piccoli (ministro francese), Anouk Aimé (Monique des Fontaines), John Hurt (Dino Montecurva), Jane Asher (dirigente della banca), Eugeniusz Haczkiewicz (Genio).
Production company: Jerzy Skolimowski.
Produttori associati: Simon Bosanquet, Barrie Vince.
