The Lightship

The only truly American film by Jerzy Skolimowski, a director accustomed to stateless productions, The Lightship maintains an ambiguous relationship with its host country. It is a film that remains outside both the Hollywood system and its territory, since most of the action takes place at sea. Skolimowski fulfils the commission (a Huston-style film noir, almost a remake of Key Largo (1948)) whilst creating a highly personal film. One of his early screenplays, Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water (1963), was already a maritime ‘closed-room’ drama. And in keeping with the nature of confined shoots, the film’s story permeated its production, which was marked by clashes between Klaus Maria Brandauer and Jerzy Skolimowski, mirroring the ego clashes between the intractable Captain Miller and his on-screen nemesis, Calvin Caspary (Robert Duvall). Similarly, the physical resemblance between Skolimowski and Brandauer is no coincidence, as the latter plays the father of Michael Lyndon, the filmmaker’s son. By adopting a superficial academic style whilst paying little heed to the conventions of the genre, Skolimowsky has preserved the energy and tension of his greatest successes: the contingencies of reality have always fuelled his art."" (Olivier Père; cinemathèque.fr)�