By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring: Isabelle Huppert | Lorenzo Zurzolo | Mateusz Kosciukiewicz | Sandra Drzymalska | Tomasz Organek
Country: italy, poland
Year: 2022
Running time: 86
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19652910/reference/
Chris says: “More than a modern-day update of Robert Bresson’s AU HAZARD BALTHAZAR (a film about the world’s kindness and cruelty as inflicted upon a donkey), Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes Jury Prize winner stylistically is a world away from the earlier film. Whereas Bresson’s approach was raw and documentary-like (closer to Andrea Arnold’s actual doc COW), EO opens with a flickering red dreamscape strongly resembling David Lynch and is often weirder from there (e.g. a cameo from Isabelle Huppert, of all people.) Glimpses of magic realism and interior reverie are accompanied by a score that would (and occasionally does) feel overbearing if not for how effectively it stands in for a predominant lack of dialogue. As for the plight of the titular animal, it’s as intense and heartbreaking as one would expect. However, rather than settling for bleakness, the films’ saving grace is in how swiftly it shifts in tone from absurdity to gentle humor and beyond. Expect noms from me for cinematography and sound design. 4 cats“