The Mill & The Cross

Sweden/Poland 2011, 94 minutes. Directed by Lech Majewski.

Presented in partnership with Princess Cinemas
February 10 - 16, 2012
Ticket information

"Even before the opening credits run, The Mill & the Cross casts a transfixing spell, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the great 16th-century Flemish artist, sketches studies for a large work he is preparing. Then the camera pulls back, blending scores of actors with computer-generated effects, painted backdrops and location shots to restage Bruegel's 1564 masterpiece, "The Way to Calvary." "Directed by the Polish filmmaker and video artist Lech Majewski, The Mill & the Cross has ambitions as sweeping as the vast canvas that Bruegel fills. In this lush and hypnotic examination of a painter's work and the times in which he lived, Mr. Majewski presents an extended contemplation of the creative process itself. As social commentary, Bruegel's depictions of life in Flanders were meticulously detailed. As a sly subversive, he had a gift for telling a hidden story to those who knew how to look for it. "In "Calvary" he shifted the Crucifixion to his own age. But it's not easy to find Jesus staggering beneath the crucifix he carries in the teeming crowds in the landscape; surrounding the procession are hundreds of local characters, most unaware of the world-shaking event about to occur. The film portrays the daily lives and often harshly casual deaths in and around 16th-century Antwerp, episodes that often wind up in Bruegel's panorama. Observing it all dispassionately is the miller, whose windmill and granary are atop a natural stone tower, a stand-in for God "grinding out the bread of life and destiny," as Bruegel (Rutger Hauer) says. "It isn't the artist, it's the art that's the star here, and Mr. Majewski lavishes sophisticated, enchanting detail on its re-creation. He's painting cinematically, applying several layers of technology: blue screen, backdrops, digital footage. At the film's end we see the painting, some of its mysteries revealed, hanging in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; we are also left to savor an inspiring, alluring meditation about imagery and storytelling, the common coin of history, religion and art." - Daniel M. Gold, NY?Times

Official Site

Princess Cinema Showings:

• Feb 10 @ 6:45 PM
• Feb 11 @ 6:45 PM
• Feb 12 @ 2:45 PM
• Feb 12 @ 7:00 PM
• Feb 13 @ 9:00 PM
• Feb 14 @ 9:00 PM
• Feb 15 @ 6:45 PM
• Feb 16 @ 6:45 PM

 

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