(Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022, Poland/Italy, 89 minutes)
Called the best film of 2022 by Amy Taubin at Artforum and a big hit for us when we hosted its St. Louis premiere and exclusive run in January 2023, octogenarian filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO is a stunning achievement. A contemporary riff on Robert Bresson’s 1966 classic Au hasard Balthazar, EO follows a donkey born in a Polish circus and goes on to wander the larger European countryside. By turns expressionist and impressionist, EO ably finds fresh ways to show the world through new eyes. Skolimowski, celebrated at the Webster Film Series in November 2019 with screenings of his British classics The Shout (1978) and Deep End (1970), and who was co-screenwriter on Knife in the Water (1962) and is even an actor in The Avengers (2012), shows the steady hand of an old master but also the fresh perspective of a young, hungry filmmaker with something to prove. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times says that “no movie I’ve seen this year has moved me as deeply, made me feel as optimistic about cinema or engaged me with such intellectual vigor as EO.”
In Polish, Italian, French, and English, with English subtitles when needed.