Success Is the Best Revenge

Like Moonlighting, this was shot very quickly, using the director's Kensington home as a major location. Once again the Polish crisis is central: Alex Rodak (York) is a theatrical director exiled with his family (actually the Skolimowskis) and planning an ambitious theatrical 'happening' to establish himself. While his self- preoccupation leads everyone to despair, his 15-year-old son Adam mulls over his own comparative lack of identity and plans to fly to Warsaw. Adam is played by Skolimowski's son (credited as Michael Lyndon); the film's basic idea was his, and clearly a lot of subsequent dabbling with the script is to blame for the way the various strands shoot off in all directions. The result is very disjointed and discursive (with time for a hilarious Thatcherite bank manager cameo from Jane Asher); but reservations aside, Skolimowski creates something which is genuinely cinematic. Spritely, humorous, dazzlingly filmed, the intense energy easily compensates for the often bewildered acting.