Movement is the key word in the career of Jerzy Skolimowski, who has never stood still since his debut in 1960 as a turbulent figure in the Polish new wave. Even before touching his first camera, the young man, born in 1938 in Lodz, did not wait to touch everything, in turn poet, publishing his first collection at 20, lighting designer for jazz concerts, drummer, actor and even a boxer. From his clashes with censorship, which banned his fifth feature film in 1967, Hands upfollowed many peregrinations across Europe (deep-end, Illegal work) to the United States (The Lightship1986), but also, sometimes, long eclipses outside the sets (seventeen years of interruption between Ferdydurke and Four nights with Anna) to devote himself to his second passion, painting.
A specialist in surprise returns, the old Polish master still finds, at 84, on the other side of his life, a new feature film to pull out of his hat, EOleft Cannes with a Jury Prize (tied with The Eight Mountains, by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch). The main character is this time, something unusual, an animal: a little donkey escaped from a circus that criss-crosses Europe from Poland to Italy.
None of Skolimowski’s films resembles the previous one and one wonders if each one is not turned against the others. “I don’t like to repeat myself »confirms the director, passing through Paris, his face parchmented with his thousand adventures and wearing an impeccable gray suit, the color of asinian coat. “ And to be honest, I’ve had enough of the linear storytelling, which I already tore to pieces in my previous film, 11 minutes, which was not very successful. This one is, because I wasn’t afraid to take formal experimentation even further.. »
A stand
Entrusting an innocent donkey with the reins of a fable on human cruelty inevitably refers to Robert Bresson’s masterpiece Random balthazar (1966). “It’s the only time tears came to my eyes at the cinemalikes to tell the venerable filmmaker. It has never happened again since. » The gesture, however, is less a tribute than a statement. “I have always felt involved in animal welfare », he explains. For some time, I felt guilty about eating meat. I have started cutting back on my intake and am now one step away from going vegan. The industrial production of meat is a barbaric activity. When I imagine the process that animals go through, I tremble with anger. »
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