REVIEW: New Film EO, Wins at Cannes With Incredible Score, Sound, and Visuals
The jury prize was awarded to EO at Cannes, showcasing Jerzy Skolimowski’s exceptional filmmaking and moving audiences with an emotional ‘tug of war’ by a furry protagonist’s journey across Europe and exposing the depths of humanity, good and bad, from the people he meets along the way.
Skolimowski’s (Deep End, Moonlighting) loosely inspired remake of Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar, EO, is his first film in seven years and chronicles the life of a nomadic grey donkey making his way across Europe by various modes of transportation. The donkey essentially changes hands from a sweet and caring owner to an enthusiastic but obnoxious and neglectful soccer team that the donkey happens to just wander over to. EO also experiences everything in between in this cinematically beautiful drama, filled with lessons on love and humanity.
The direction, sensational sound, and score by Pawel Mykietyn, along with the stunning cinematography by Michal Dymek, will truly have you invested in this lonely and endearing beast. The film will pull at all of your senses and emotions taking you on euphoric highs and terrorizing lows and on to serene euphoric visual and sound experiences. The scenery is just beautiful, panning from dew-soaked forests to fields and mountains, making for an idyllic landscape for this lone creature. EO is subversive and you will be completely attached to his spirit and journey which begins for him after being taken from a traveling circus and moved on to the Polish and Italian countryside.
Walked out on Skolimowski’s #EO overwhelmed, only to sit w/it a 2nd time; that’s how connected I was to this donkey through its journey of various human encounters w/breathtaking landscapes layered w/an incredible score + sound. ‘EO’ elicits love, compassion, loss, pain, + fear. pic.twitter.com/dSIFpHxOo9
— Nikki Fowler (@NikkiFowler28) November 29, 2022
EO meets various individuals on his journey and he observes cruelty and love in massive doses along the way. He’s eyeing humankind while we scrutinize him only through his motion and his eyes which are so very telling. EO crosses paths with a young Italian priest played by Lorenzo Zurzolo, a Countess played by Isabelle Huppert, and a riotous Polish soccer team, with the latter putting him in the most despicable of positions and on the receiving end of unbearable violence. EO pushes you to that uncomfortable place of fear in knowing how dark and cruel humans can be, as well as careless and deeply loving.
EO was directed in Poland and Italy with writers Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski, editor Agnieszka Glinska, and stars Sandra Drzymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, and Isabelle Huppert. Watch the trailer below. To stream EO, subscribe to The Criterion Channel below.
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