This film is made out of emotion… it’s our song of love
for nature…
Idea for a new streaming service: Jerzy Skolimowski being “interviewed”
and talking about his films, his collaborators and his art, no ads, just 24/7
humility, intelligence and integrity, self-depreciating humour, pauses for
thought as he translates from his English to The English aided by
partner, co-producer and co-writer Ewa Piaskowska. Trust me, it’ll be
compelling and, how you kids say, immersive.
This smashing new release features one such post screening
interview from New York in which Jerzy, as he was at the BFI last month, in
erudite and eloquent form, leaving his interviewer standing with lengthy freeform
extemporisations you’d expect from a former jazz drummer, despite the urgings
of Ewa to keep his answers short. He can’t help it; he has such a powerfully
holistic view of his work and all of this is punctured by the honesty and charm
of the former poet who once tried to steal and destroy his own books.
EO marks the apogee – so far - of his cinematic renaissance
and is a stunning work for a man of any age but as the director says, this was
the most democratic of creations in which he took a step back and encouraged
his collaborators to do what felt the most natural and adventurous to them. But
we’ll come to the donkey later…
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| The lonliness of the long-distance trotter |
He marks the contribution of Polish composer Paweł Mykietyn
whose beautiful score really opens up the simplicity and beauty of the donkey’s
world, not in an anthropomorphic way but in terms of a connection to the
feelings all animals must have regardless of sentience. If nothing else, this
film asks us to not only unconditionally focus on the predicament of the animal
but also our reactions to it and Mykietyn has us in bits.
Michał Dymek’s cinematography is frequently breath-taking,
both in terms of patient equine close ups but also in covering the immense
sweep of the journey from the confusion of the initial circus to EO’s journey
into the lower Alps, mountains and lakes ahead as the truck carrying him snakes
it’s way closer, an overhead drone shot on a straight bridge, the donkey in
relief traversing a bridge in front of a dam and the waters swirling and then
reversing in front of us; non-linear, time running backwards as we, or EO, attempt
to make sense of the movement.
Agnieszka Glińska’s editing must also be mentioned, she’s so
vital in establishing the action/reaction of the four legs and the two legs,
the tone and the pacing of an apparently slow film in which so much happens and
not all is resolved… that’s life and we can make our own dénouements…
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| EO with Sandra Drzymalska |
Skolimowski talks of his first proper film, Barrier, being
screened in Paris and then listed as the second-best film of the year in Cahiers
du Cinéma's top 10 films of 1966. They wanted to interview him and, after he
recovered from the shock of this unexpected accolade, he insisted on seeing the
film that came first before. It was Robert Bresson's 1966 film Au Hasard
Balthazar, the beginnings of Donkey core, and which took him from his semi-professional/semi-cynical
filmmaker’s poise to tears by the final stunning reel.
Almost 60 years later he chose to make his own film about a
donkey partly out of compassion – the film is a reality-checker for all careless
carnivores – but also for technical reasons; he wanted to use an animals’ uncomprehending
yet all too real responses to drive the narrative and he wanted a new, real
character to help present a non-linear narrative. As with his earlier work, Essential
Killing (2010) the film is a picaresque fable only more satisfying and
successful, with enough human interaction to flavour the relentless journey.
Jerzy may be dissatisfied by some of his dialogue-driven
work but he chooses his human performers well especially with Isabelle Huppert in
the final human segment, she is always the master of interior expression and
barely has need of dialogue herself. It’s tempting to draw a link to Jane Asher
in Deep End – I think the director likes the red hair aesthetically but
he also admires their silent stillness. Huppert is a Countess commanding a huge
estate as well as her troubled stepson, Vito (Lorenzo Zurzolo), a trainee priest, who rescues EO
from a lorry load of stolen horses, confessing his meat-eating sins to his new friend.
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| Isabelle Huppert |
The first human interactions are the key though with our
hero EO performing in a circus and being loved by his trainer and rider Kasandra
(Sandra Drzymalska). This is the closest connection the animal has throughout
the film and it is perhaps what drives him on to keep moving once he has been “rescued”
from the circus by well-meaning animal rights activists who get the animals
taken to a sanctuary. EO is visited by Kasandra but after she leaves, he sets
off in pursuit and his adventures begin. He is only one donkey and it’s a
confusing disjointed world out there.
EO himself is portrayed by six donkeys: Ettore, Hola,
Marietta, Mela, Rocco, and Tako but none of them were hurt in the making of
this picture. All of them look straight to camera, always in character, never
flinching but always some how pleading… may we make the effort to understand
them.
As usual with the BFI, the special features are indeed
special:
Jerzy Skolimowski & Ewa Piaskowska on the making of EO
(2022, 27 mins): director Jerzy Skolimowski and co-writer Ewa Piaskowska
discuss the making of EO at the New York Film Festival
Skolimowski A to Ż (2023, 53 mins): an alphabetical
journey through the work of Jerzy Skolimowski with writer Michael Brooke who also
conducted that superb interview with the director at the BFI in March.
High Rise Donkey (1980, 56 mins): in this Children’s
Film Foundation adventure, three children who live in a tower block try to save
a donkey from small-time crooks.
The Clown and His Donkey (1910, 4 mins): rare
silhouette animation by Charles Armstrong depicting a clown doing tricks with
his donkey Charles Armstrong depicting a clown doing tricks with his donkey.
UK trailer and assorted teasers
First pressing only illustrated booklet with an essay
by Ewa Mazierska, an interview with Jerzy Skolimowski & Ewa Piaskowska by
David Thompson and a film review by Christina Newland for Sight and Sound,
credits and notes on the special features
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| Ettore, Hola, Marietta, Mela, Rocco, or Tako |
The BFI Southbank season, Outsiders and Exiles: The Films
of Jerzy Skolimowski, a BFI Southbank season dedicated to the director,
presented in partnership with the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, continues
until 29th April. A selection of films will also be available on BFI
Player and EO will be available exclusively to BFI Player subscribers.
Details are on the BFI site… Jerzy Skolimowski is an unique
talent who has often had to fight to get his films made but who always seems to
deliver something unusual and mood altering just like his viewing of Bresson's
film, you will be moved by EO… do not hesitate to purchase!
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