Film Review EO: about a donkey wandering through modern Poland

Jerzy Skolimowski's "EO," almost a ass wandering through modern Poland, is a rare beast painting that's not aimed at kids. In fact, modest children, particularly ones conditioned by mail-1950s Disney cartoons nearly lovable creatures, should non be allowed anywhere near it, because the moving picture doesn't stint on presentations of the cruelty in addition to brutality that animals endure inwards a world of humans, too that humans inflict on each other. This is not a instance similar "Babe" or the recent "Okja" where hard-edged presentations of human foibles too destructive actions alternate alongside heartwarming depictions of goodhearted folks trying their best to protect the creatures they honey and honor. There are very few people inward this cinema who even look to notice animals—in addition to when they exercise, it sometimes leads to the worst form of attending.

Like Robert Bresson's 1966 ass-centric parable "Au Hasard Balthazar"— which provided the storytelling template for many other ambitious dramas such every bit "The Bear" in addition to "War Horse" that focus on animals who are simply animals, too don't mouth or sing or otherwise endeavour to entertain us—this ane has the feeling of a pre-20th century fairy tale. The primary finish is to create a fable that reminds the viewer of humans' connections to the natural earth and serves up situations that take metaphorical dimensions beyond any physical actions that hap to live taking home at that instant.

The title grapheme is grayness alongside white flecks inward his fur. We don't know his historic period or prior history. We first come across him inwards the opening credits sequence which, similar thus many parts of this celluloid, is lit inward expressionistic colors (blood-red inwards this case) that verge on nightmarish or lurid. EO is in the heart call at a circus. His sugariness as well as doting trainer Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska) leads him through the tricks she's trained him to practise. Then EO is separated from Kasandra when the circus is dismantled following a bankruptcy notice at the same fourth dimension that creature rights activists are protesting the demonstrate for fauna cruelty.

Like Robert Bresson's 1966 ass-centric parable "gold Hasard Balthazar"— which provided the storytelling template for many other ambitious dramas such equally "The Bear" and "War Horse" that focus on animals who are only animals, and don't verbalize or sing or otherwise try to entertain us—this i has the feeling of a pre-20th century fairy tale. The master destination is to create a fable that reminds the viewer of humans' connections to the natural world as well as serves upward situations that have metaphorical dimensions beyond any physical actions that take place to live taking home at that second.

The title graphic symbol is gray with white flecks inwards his fur. We don't know his age or prior history. We start come across him in the opening credits sequence which, like thence many parts of this cinema, is lit inward expressionistic colors (reddish inwards this instance) that verge on nightmarish or lurid. EO is in the eye ring at a circus. His sugariness and doting trainer Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska) leads him through the tricks she's trained him to practise. Then EO is separated from Kasandra when the circus is dismantled next a bankruptcy notice at the same fourth dimension that brute rights activists are protesting the demonstrate for fauna cruelty.

EO is modest in addition to typical—the kind of animal who seems beautiful later you get to know him, but who might non stand out inwards a stable total of donkeys. He could accept been the model for the wisecracker inwards the "Shrek" movies. When Skolimowski too cinematographer Michal Dymek photograph him inward tight close-ups—sometimes thence tight that the squarish, former-flick frame can barely incorporate the graceful business of EO's head in profile, ane optic looming dead-centre—you acquire a glimmer of what could mayhap be wisdom. But that's just yous the viewer projecting, inwards the means y'all might while visiting a farm or zoo.

The filmmakers are resolute in keeping EO mysterious in addition to letting him live an brute. We don't actually know why he does or does non practice things at whatsoever minute. Even when his trainer finds and briefly consoles him in addition to and so leaves him too he seems to go later on her, in that location's no indication of what EO expects or hopes to achieve, much less his likelihood of success. He travels a ways and and then stops, too more things pass.

But in that location's non always a discernible internal logic to the scenes in addition to laid pieces, and that tin brand parts of "EO" experience less similar a coherent, if stripped-down, narrative than a highlight reel of clever cinematography techniques, including ostentatious acrobatic drone shots soaring high over the countryside, unmarried-color filters (evocative of the last department of "2001: A Space Odyssey") in addition to beginning-someone "pull a fast one on shots" where cameras accept been attached to machines in addition to other objects in motility. Some of these images are truly beautiful, eerie fifty-fifty. But others (including an early, brief sequence inwards a stable) veer towards fashion-magazine slick prettiness. And there are times when the film gets fixated on bold colors as well as striking angles (such equally a very depression-angled shot of a robot "domestic dog" trundling through grass and across puddly dirt roads) to the detriment or fail of EO. It's non plenty to entirely derail the moving picture, but one mightiness want for a fleck more than aesthetic clarity from fourth dimension to fourth dimension.

One of the most upsetting sequences inwards the cinema finds EO chewing grass outside of a nightclub somewhere inwards the countryside when thugs alongside baseball game bats pull upwardly inward cars, invade the club, shell and frighten the patrons, and so barge back exterior to drive away into the nighttime. Somebody inwards ane of the cars notices EO at the edge of the lot, in addition to they all climb back out of the car and beat out him, likewise, with the photographic camera simulating EO's first-mortal perspective equally the blows rain downwards on him. Why didn't EO run the 2nd the cars pulled up together with the men got out screaming amongst rage? This too other moments get in feel equally if the potential for dramatic ability overruled practical or logical considerations.

But such lapses are rare. For the most part, you feel equally if you lot're inwards certain hands as well as tin can reckon what the storytellers are trying to do. It's as much an anthropological pseudo-documentary every bit it is a drama, 1 that sometimes evokes the Terrence Malick philosophy of "The Thin Red Line," which began by insisting that humans are a office of nature too that when humans state of war amongst other humans, it is nature warring with itself.

This is non the kind of picture show that tries to convince viewers that animals are "just like us," even though quite a few scenes depict humans confirming that they, likewise, are animals, by intimidating together with terrorizing individuals together with groups inward order to assert authorization or claim territory. At to the lowest degree EO escaped the circus. Humans built it together with are the principal attractions every bit well equally the audience, too don't realize that they're running through the same routines, mean solar day later on twenty-four hour period.