- Actors: Jeremy Irons, Edward Arthur, David Calder, Trevor Cooper, David Gant
- Directors: Jerzy Skolimowski
- Format: Colour, NTSC, Import
- Language English
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: PG
- Studio: Trinity Home Entertainment
- DVD Release Date: 3 Aug 2005
- Run Time: 97 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- ASIN: B000BGQUH0
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 64,189 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a tale of a bunch of moonlighting early 1980s Polish building workers, just arrived from Warsaw, who sweat day and night to renovate a wrecked London flat owned by a communist government official as a weekend pad. Their foreman (Jeremy Irons) has to crack the whip keeping them up to the mark even on Christmas Day as a drama unfolds back in Poland where the military launch a coup to unseat the governemtn who are being too soft on restive Solidarity workers. Irons is desperate to keep the news from them in case they take fright and rush to the airport and home, forsaking his and their bonuses.
This is quite a promising thesis for a small scale movie which the director Jerzy Skolimowski handles gingerly rather than grabs with both hands. There's a curiously muffled tone to the whole thing - events and motivations are often half explained, and the viewer is left to fill in quite a few gaps in narrative and particularly re. the political situation in Poland (anyone less than 40 who is not a fairly keen student of politics and history is likely to be quite baffled by the unfolding events in Warsaw as they impinge on our merry band of builders).
But this failing is not critical as the film has lots of charm and is oddly soothing to watch. There are amusing and even poignant scenes of a London oblivious to the presence amongst it of the Poles as Irons (excellent; on screen the whole time, and the only character in the film who is at all developed) scrapes by on a rock bottom budget by fair means and foul.
This is a small scale, low budget film that leaves the viewer wondering whether it acquired ideas above its station in abandoning the TV studio for its grander film relative, but which I recommend for those looking for a quirky sidelight on a social issue that still and even more strongly preoccupies us nearly 30 years after it was made.
This is quite a promising thesis for a small scale movie which the director Jerzy Skolimowski handles gingerly rather than grabs with both hands. There's a curiously muffled tone to the whole thing - events and motivations are often half explained, and the viewer is left to fill in quite a few gaps in narrative and particularly re. the political situation in Poland (anyone less than 40 who is not a fairly keen student of politics and history is likely to be quite baffled by the unfolding events in Warsaw as they impinge on our merry band of builders).
But this failing is not critical as the film has lots of charm and is oddly soothing to watch. There are amusing and even poignant scenes of a London oblivious to the presence amongst it of the Poles as Irons (excellent; on screen the whole time, and the only character in the film who is at all developed) scrapes by on a rock bottom budget by fair means and foul.
This is a small scale, low budget film that leaves the viewer wondering whether it acquired ideas above its station in abandoning the TV studio for its grander film relative, but which I recommend for those looking for a quirky sidelight on a social issue that still and even more strongly preoccupies us nearly 30 years after it was made.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
The Silence of the Exile
15 Feb 2003
Jeremy Irons plays a man in a state of exile, a Pole living in England. He has not altogether left his country, he's only come to England to work as a go-between who hires cheap Polish laborers to do jobs for frugal English clients. Irons has a wife back home in Poland but makes more money in England than he ever could at home so he stays and grows ever more isolated from his homeland. When a new batch of workers arrive he greets them at the airport and escorts them to their living quarters and tends to their every need. This is the status quo he lives in. And one suspects he prefers stable old England to the instability of his homeland. His life is secure if at times lonely. We see his wife only as a picture that he has pinned to the wall above his bed. One day he notices that events in Poland have taken a turn for the worse. He knows if he tells the men this news they will want to return immediately so he hides the newspaper deciding to hide the news from the men as long as it takes to finish the job. This dishonesty is nothing less than a betrayal. And he knows it. We know this act is despicable and yet we also know what motivates it. Irons wants to preserve the only order he knows. He is not necessarily close to any of the men nor does he share any sense of community with them nor does he express any sort of sentiment about Poland, he is a loner and yet to preserve his sense of order he is forced into this treachery. And once he begins lying to the men his treachery knows no bounds--he does whatever is necessary to preserve the illusion to his men(and himself) that things are just fine. It is only a matter of time til the inevitable confrontation will come when his men find out that he has lied to them. And the confrontation like everything else in this film is subtle and memorable and poignant. Along the way we hear Irons thoughts about what he is doing and it is facinating to see this man do what he does all the while knowing full well what the consequences will be. Powerful acting performance by Irons as this man whose loyalties are no longer certain.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Superb Independent British Film
16 Jan 1999
Despite the people who think this film has anything to do with the TV show, I believe that this film will be remembered as Jeremy Irons best work to date. It is an understated and fascinating film about 4 Polish workers who come to London to renovate (illegally) their boss' condo. This was made in 1982 after the Soviet crackdown on Solidarity. If the first 10 minutes of the film (masterfully directed) don't hook you then you'll be missing one of the best films made in the 1980's. Read ANY film critic's review.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Great film deserves better treatment
9 Jan 2007
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a bare-bones DVD release of one of the best films by the Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. Unlike his compatriots Andrzei Wadja and Roman Polanski (both of whom he collaborated with), Skolimowski did not become as famous, though he made a number of films of great distinction in a nomadic international career. MOONLIGHTING is one of his best movies, and this study of immigrant Polish workers in London remains a prescient political allegory, so it's unfortunate that there are not more extensive supplements to help explain the film's background and to discuss the many levels of meaning in the film.
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