The Stranger Inside me, the Foreigner Among Us. Emigrant's Experience in Jerzy Skolimowski's British Films

Examining 'Moonlighting' and 'Success Is the Best Revenge', the two important films in the British period of the life of Jerzy Skolimowski, the author employs two complementary interpretation perspectives. The first one focuses on the emigration character of the films while the other assumes that the director forms a kind of 'autobiographical pact' with the viewer; in line with the rules of the pact the audience expects the director to 'tell truth about himself' and is inclined to see autobiographical elements even where actually there are not any, while the author consents to the ensuing consequences. In his interpretation, he argues that 'outsiderism', so typical of Skolimowski's films, is understood as a feeling of the alienation of the world. In 'Moonlighting' and 'Success Is the Best Revenge' this feeling is expressed through the emigrant's gaze - the emigrant who has not put down roots in a new land and is struggling with memories of the homeland s/he has left.