Friday Night Flicks: EO
If you had told me a year ago that the most traumatic film I would watch over the next twelve months would be a ninety-minute road drama about a circus donkey, I probably would’ve laughed a little.
But here I am now, about an hour fresh off watching Jerzy Skolimowski’s latest masterpiece EO, and I’ll tell you this much: I’m definitely not laughing. In fact, I don’t think I’ll be laughing about anything for the next couple of weeks.
EO is a modern retelling of Au Hasard Balthazar, a French tragedy that follows a lovable but mournful-looking donkey named Balthazar as he passes from owner to owner on the French countryside, enduring varying amounts of physical abuse and hardship along the way. The two films have their differences, mostly to do with setting and visual aesthetics (EO takes place in present day Poland and was filmed in crystal-clear 4k, while Au Hasard Balthazar was filmed and set in France in the sixties), but both will rip your heart clean out of your chest.
Just like its French ancestor, EO tastefully threads the line between solemn statement piece and complete psychedelic nightmare. It all makes for some seriously Kubrick-esque imagery.
EO
2001: A Space Odyssey
Spoiler alert: While told and experienced from the perspective of a donkey, EO isn’t about donkeys, or even animals for that matter.
It’s about human behavior. (spoiler alert: we fuck up.)
Check your therapist’s availability over the next few weeks before watching. —Jackson Todd
