EO Review | Movie – Empire
When the Polish circus he works for abruptly closes down, pretty little donkey EO finds himself unmoored, drifting throughout the land, shifting from individual to individual as he’s purchased, bought, misplaced and injured. Alongside the way in which he encounters an eclectic array of people — and experiences completely different points of humanity.
Jerzy Skolimowski has by no means been the standard type. Having made his title as a part of the Polish New Wave scene within the Sixties, he directed some arresting British dramas within the Seventies and ’80s, and in 2010 solid Vincent Gallo as, in some way, a Taliban fighter in survivalist thriller Important Killing. In the meantime, he’s dabbled in performing — considered one of his final gigs had him being headbutted by Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow in 2012’s Avengers Assemble. He’s predictably unpredictable, so it is sensible that his newest movie is a trippy, 86-minute odyssey following a donkey throughout Poland. EO may be very loosely impressed by Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar, however idea apart, that is most Skolimowski. And most donkey.
Co-written together with his spouse Ewa Piaskowska, it introduces us to the mild, docile EO (performed by six donkey actors), whose street journey begins after a circus goes bust. This implies he’s separated from Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska), the human circus-worker who adores him, and as he travels the land, his fortunes fluctuate. If this appears like a cuddly Pixar movie — nicely, no. Skolimowski isn’t one to shrink back from harsh realities, and right here we’ve random acts of violence. Individuals die. Somebody’s neck is sliced open. Animals are killed. And should you can’t abdomen seeing a donkey having the shit kicked out of him from his POV, then this may not be the movie for you.
In EO, life is gorgeous, and majestic, and horrific and terrible.
There’s lots occurring right here. In addition to such harshness, there’s mischievous humour, a few of it deadpan, a few of it slapstick, a few of it involving a plate-smashing Isabelle Huppert (within the movie’s oddest, most jarring sequence). A lot of it’s plain stunning, Skolimowski in thrall to the pure world — and to his donkey. Cinematographer Michal Dymek supplies tranquil, tender close-ups of EO, in addition to some slightly operatic imagery. A drone digicam, presumably, swoops by way of a red-filtered forest. A Steadicam follows EO by way of a tunnel as he’s besieged by bats. River-water is filmed like fractals. A useless fowl, fallen from the sky, splats on a woodland flooring. The superior horror of life.
Accompanying all of that is Pawel Mykietyn’s rating, treating EO profoundly, reverentially, epically. Terrifying strings soundtrack somebody consuming pasta. A backyard gate opens and it looks like The Shining. Heavy steel segues into Beethoven. And generally, the music appears to lean into EO’s personal mind-set. Skolimowski isn’t afraid to counsel that EO has feelings a lot as we do, giving him dream sequences, or not less than reminiscences of happier occasions with Kasandra. There’s a non secular high quality to EO, and it’s unusual and touching.
EO is dwarfed by the pure world, and by individuals. It looks like Skolimowski, aged 84, has had it with people. Definitely those that aren’t good to animals. In EO, life is gorgeous, and majestic, and horrific and terrible. Shit goes down, simply because. On we go. Till we die.
A beguiling and sometimes brutal take a look at the lifetime of a donkey, this hijacks your coronary heart, your thoughts, your ears and your eyes from begin to end.
