EO a donkey with a melancholic gaze might steal your hearts in this Cannes’ « Prix du Jury » winner.
The Polish film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, and starring Isabelle Huppert, Sandra Drzymalska and Lorenzo Zurzolo is screening today at 21h30 at Le 4éme Art theater, as part of the « Cinéma du Monde » section of JCC. In this star-studded film, and above all expectations, a donkey will probably melt your heart and convince you that he is one of the best actors of all time. He doesn’t just play a big role in the film, he is the protagonist of the film. It might sound crazy at first to watch a film which follows throughout the entire runtime a donkey which can’t speak or really express his feelings, but it actually works. That’s due to the fantastic work of the team behind the film. Much of the success is due to director Jerzy Skolimowski, who seemed to know exactly what he was doing and how he wanted the film to look in the end. But he wouldn’t have succeeded in making an interesting film about a donkey if it wasn’t for his DoP Michal Dymek and his film editor Agniezka Glinska. Their collaboration results in giving the donkey a character, and making us believe that EO is actually played by a fantastic actor.
It is important to note that film is a tribute or a poetic rework of Robert Bresson’s classic « Au Hasard Balthazar ». Like his predecessor, EO is driven by the nagging ambiguity of our relationships with animals. Do they love us or are they weathering our presence out of shrewdness or indifference?
