The Mill and the Cross (2011)

Directed by: Lech Majewski | 96 minutes | drama, history | Actors: Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling, Michael York, Joanna Litwin, Dorota Lis, Oskar Huliczka, Marian Makula

Pieter Bruegel (the elder), the ancestor of one of the most influential Flemish dynasty of painting, did not have the name that his contemporaries Michelangelo or Leonardo had in his lifetime, but he nevertheless enjoyed a reasonable fame. But, as befits a true artist, he became especially famous after his death in 1569, and art collectors pulled out all the stops to get hold of one of his paintings. His paintings are scattered all over the world, from the National Gallery of Art in Washington to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which also houses ‘The Carrying of the Cross’ (1564).

‘The Carrying of the Cross’ is the largest painting Bruegel ever made (124 x 170 cm) and it forms, together with the book by art critic Michael Francis Gibson, who co-wrote the film, the starting point of tableau vivant by Polish director and multimedia artist Lech Majewski , ‘The Mill and the Cross’ (2011). More than five hundred characters are depicted on the panel, who are located in a landscape that has unmistakably Flemish characteristics, but also absurdist, deviant elements, such as a majestic rock on which a windmill is positioned. Bruegel was inspired by Jan van Eyk (who lived about a century before Bruegel), and gave his painting a deeper layer by portraying a biblical theme, but then translated to his own time. The focal point of the painting is Jesus, who collapses under the cross that he has to carry, but despite the fact that this sad scene takes place in the center, the viewer’s attention is not focused on the agony of this young man. The Jesus slumped under his cross merges into the crowd of people who come from the Flemish variant of Jerusalem (top left of the painting) to see the crucifixion or to help with it. The windmill takes over the role of God here (in the past, God was often shown at the top of a painting) and in the foreground we see a grieving Mary, comforted by Saint John. Not only is the viewer distracted from the core of the artwork, the depicted characters themselves do not seem to notice the presence of Jesus. It is Bruegel’s critique of humanity (even then!) that the human soul is blind and insensitive to the suffering of others and that its own happiness is put first.

This fact is also evident in Majewski’s ‘The Mill and the Cross’. The most horrific events are witnessed by an apparently unaffected group of people, only a few, who are directly involved with the victim, show any emotion. It is a shocking yet fascinating picture of a community in a period in European history that remains underexposed in many films.

Majewski has used an entirely new technique for his daring project. 2D background paintings are combined with 3D animation and live action. Placing layer upon layer upon layer (in extreme cases more than a hundred!) creates a unique image of a convincing painting that comes to life, because the colors are indisputably Bruegelian and the clothing is meticulously cared for down to the last detail. Sometimes time is literally stopped when characters remain silent in their actions. Music and dialogue never dominate: the voices of the three most famous actors, Rutger Hauer as the painter himself, Charlotte Rampling as the doubting and deeply sad mother of the Jesus figure, and Michael York as Nicholaes Jonghelinck, for whom Bruegel painted the painting. are rarely heard. But the other actors are also impressive, especially the young woman, who remains anonymous, whose lover in the film becomes the first victim of the Spanish Inquisition and is horribly left to his degrading fate and more or less sacrificed to the corpse-picking black. crowing. Her grief touches you, and not just because the trigger is so sad and meaningless.

It is clever of the director that with a film in which almost no narrative structure can be recognized and the viewer searches in vain for context, he still manages to keep his attention throughout the entire playing time. ‘The Mill and the Cross’ is a feast for your mind, your eyes and ears (hope for a cinema without noise and/or watch it later on DVD with headphones on). The jester’s tune will remain in your mind for a long time to come.

This fascinating visual experiment makes Majewski one of the boldest and most innovative European filmmakers. ‘The Mill and the Cross’ is a film he had to make, given his passion for the subject. Although it will probably only reach a select group of art lovers, those people will certainly enjoy an aesthetic and particularly powerful production in its message. Some prior knowledge of history and Bruegel is an advantage to fully utilize the viewing pleasure.