Polish legend Jerzy Skolimowski returns with a new edition of Madcap Brysson

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Among the many good things that can be said, “EO“By far the most ridiculous movie in competition in It was This year you had no idea that the 84-year-old director only shot it for his fourth film since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Professor of new, aesthetically liberated Polish cinema – alumni included. Krzysztof Kilowski, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Zanussi – Jerzy Skolimowski Most recently, Croisette gained fame in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a series of British dramas starring John Hurt and Jeremy Irons. The horror movie “Scream” starring Alan Bates won the Grand Prix for the Jury Prize in 1978. The movie “Moonlighting” in 1982 won the award for best screenplay. New York Times critic Vincent Canby called it “one of the best exile films ever made”.

“EO” is different from any of them, even if he has something to say about exile.

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Speaking through the eyes of a humble donkey – often literally – he has a lot of nods to his classmates and has nothing to do with Skolimowski’s previous films. The title donkey, called “Hi-Han” in France, was freed from a circus in central Poland and briefly became a “superhero” fan of the local soccer team before embarking on his next adventure, all his life. road. Eo even meets Isabelle Huppert, a privilege that any living creature can look upon with pride over the years. (In response to Marvel’s cameo, Huppert’s look, produced during yesterday’s press show, is one for the ages.)

The fact that Eo is not in control of his own destiny – remember our narrator is literally a donkey – makes watching a bit chaotic. There are no threads of human conversation to understand. It seems that there is no conspiracy. In Bryson’s version, the people around the donkey are the true center of the story. Not so at EDC. This is the donkey’s vision and we’re better off about it.

However, there are some welcome glimpses into the composition and traditional epochs in Polish cinema as Skolimowski et al. The local officials cutting the tape at the new farmhouse depot are as incompetent and stupid as the communist leaders in the Kieślowski and Andrzej Wajda films. One notable photo shows a priest blessing the new facility. To say that many Polish films about the unfortunate opening of a new factory featured on the same metaphor would be an understatement. Communism in Poland may be gone, but the country’s stinging acumen and distrust of the new Polish cinema toward the Catholic Church remain.

This is not to say that “EO” is a big reversal, but to what extent no cooling. There are some sharp visual tricks, particularly the really crazy shooting of IU’s dreams – yes – and trying your ass at a circus show, with drone shots that make Michael Bay jealous. لودód Film School, which Skolimowski knew better than anything else, is famous for its innovations in photography. While the Italian documentaries’ neorealists and banker-makers in Great Britain were social activists, those who came through لودód with Skolimowski are technical experts. “EO” explains that his skills here have not aged a single day. (The fact that Skolimowski is the co-author of Polański’s new text is a huge influence.)

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Under 90 minutes – other competition titles have been a little longer so far – perhaps EO is light and awkward to be one of the contenders for Palme. It’s a pity because it’s unlike anything else in Cannes’ lineup.

Most likely, she found her place in this year’s competition due to her connection to Skolimowski’s previous work and his relationship with Bryson. Regardless of the fact that they have completely different ideological views: Bresson is almost a spiritual homage to the very nature of the victim, with shades of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot”. Just like the work of the French New Wave icon, each shot was intentionally created. However, EO is more interested in telling the meandering story of a donkey roaming modern Europe in all its strangeness and brutality.

The most embodied human role is Cassandra (Sandra Drzimalska), Ayo’s circus companion. With her eyes we see the absolute beauty of the animal – not everyone sees this as Eo – in a similar way we perceive the beauty of the Ewa cow in “The First Cow” with cookie eyes. But then the human gaze turns away.

“As for me, the donkey isn’t exactly funny, but the guy is always funny,” Ingmar Bergman said after watching Bryson’s movie. Focusing almost entirely on his donkey, Skolimowski takes on the unenviable task of challenging Bergman head-on – and he seems wrong.