Genres

Visitors Review

Deidra 2012-05-24 00:59:27

Painterly and absorbing

I found this film to inspire the same contemplative mood and heightenedawareness of similar films that build power without reliance on lots ofdialogue, music or usual cinematic cues. If you appreciated "Into GreatSilence" or "Vision" or "The Tree of Life" or even "2001" you willappreciate the poetic quality of this film. It is important for us toslow down occasionally and allow some films to affect us without thenecessity of being slammed over the head with noise and speed andhighly charged emotions. After all, for a film placed in its time, thatis a more realistic portrayal of life during those centuries. This filmilluminates the artistic process and aims of the artist. We arefortunate that the makers of this film dared to create this uniquejourney into a canvas of one of the world's great artists.

JvH48 2012-05-23 05:40:26

Must-see guided tour through Bruegel's picture

Many thanks to the Rotterdam filmfestival 2011 for screening thisguided tour through Christ Carrying the Cross, the painting by PieterBruegel the Elder. I learned a lot about the ideas behind it and theway it was set up. Seeing it explained gradually throughout the story,will let me remember it better than reading about it in a book.We also learned a lot about how people lived those days. A specialmention should be devoted to the parts where this film demonstratesthat life goes on, regardless of politics, war, and religions. We alsosaw many forgotten customs about bread, threshold cleaning, and muchmore that I want to leave as an exercise to the close observer.A dramatic moment at ¾ of the film is where the painter raises hishand, and life comes to a stand still, including the mill on the hillthat stops by a hand signal of the miller. It seems no coincidence thatthe miller very much resembles how our Lord is pictured usually, andalso that he oversees the whole panorama from his high position. Assoon as he signals the mill to resume working, the whole picturerelives from its frozen state.A large part of the audience stayed for the final Q&A. We got muchinformation about the post production effort required to get the colorsright, and creating the different layers to get everything in focus.Further, the film maker told he wanted to make a feature film from thestart. It was considered a Mission Impossible by the people around him.How wrong they were!All in all, a lot goes on in the film, much more than I could overseeduring the screening. Maybe I should try to grasp more of the finedetails during a second viewing. I don't think I saw everything thatthe film makers did put into this production.

chaz-28 2012-05-22 15:35:14

A film inside of a painting; Up close and personal with 16th century Flanders

The Mill and the Cross is a movie inside of a painting, specificallyThe Way to Calvary (1564) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Pieter Bruegel(Rutger Hauer) is the main character in the film which takes turnsfollowing him as he decides how his painting will take shape and whowill be in it and also follows the local peasants who go about theirdaily business in middle of 16th century Flanders. The background isalways the actual painting's background with the mill high up on a rocklooking down on a large field where most of the action occurs.Bruegel's patron is Nicolaes Jonghelinck (Michael York), a successfulFlemish banker who spends his time learning from Bruegel about thepeople in the painting and what each section represents and alsopontificates to nobody in particular about the current state of affairsin Flanders. In 1564, Spain ruled what is now Antwerp and Flanders. TheSpanish militia seen in the painting in their red tunics seemed to bepreoccupied with chasing down and torturing Protestant heretics. Thereare gruesome scenes in the film with a man tied to a wagon wheelhoisted up in the air with no defense at all while the birds have athim. A woman's fate is no better as she is shoved alive into an opengrave while the red tunics fill the dirt in on top of her.The Way to Calvary itself does not show these particular atrocities.Instead, it has Jesus in the center hoisting his own cross towards hiscrucifixion. The exact moment the painting captures is Simon helpinghim with the cross because Jesus stumbled and fell down. Everyone'seyes are on Simon at this time instead of Jesus. In the foreground isMary (Charlotte Rampling). She is helpless as she sits on the sidelinesbecause there is nothing she can do to prevent the red tunics fromcarrying out their mission. The rest of the painting shows hundreds ofpeasants either watching the proceeding or going about their chores.Children play games on the hillside, a local peddler sells his bread, ahorn player dances around, and above them all, the miller observes fromhis windmill.The Mill and the Cross is at its best when Bruegel is explaining hisinspiration and how he plans to incorporate all of his ideas and scenesinto one large landscape. He looks closely at a spider's web todiscover where the anchor point on his painting will be and how tosection off the rest of the action. Just as intriguing are the scenesof everyday life in 1564 Flanders. A young couple gets out of bed andtakes their cow to the field for the day. Bruegel's wife and childrenwake up after him and get ready for breakfast which is a small slice ofbread. The miller and his apprentice ready the mill for the day's tasksand the large wheels and gears moan into action.Rutger Hauer is excellent as Pieter Bruegel and he appears to beserving his artistic penance to atone for his ridiculous participationin Hobo with a Shotgun earlier this year. Michael York is taking abreak from his voice over work and TV appearances to finally show up ina serious film again. Charlotte Rampling is sort of the odd man outhere. Her screen time is sparse as Mary and she spends most of the timemisty eyed observing all of the peasant movements around her.The Mill and the Cross is a Polish production directed by Lech Majewskiwho also aided in adapting the screenplay from a book of the same nameby Michael Francis Gibson. The film was an official selection at thisyear's Sundance Film Festival and will most likely earn an Oscar nodfor Best Costume Design. The costumes are remarkable and frequentlytake center stage over the performers.The Mill and the Cross is a bit reminiscent of The Girl with a PearlEarring but instead of showing how the painting is made from theoutside, this time, the filmmakers actually take you inside of thepainting itself and walks on the same landscape as its subjects. Thereis little dialogue in the film which is not a problem because it is soabsorbing to just sit back and watch the peasants wander around thearea and Bruegel figure out how to tie everything together. I will notgive it away, but the final shot of the film is as wonderful as therest as the camera backs up and reveals something to the audience.If you are a movie patron with patience and an interest in art history,The Mill and the Cross is for you. If you get bored in movies withoutguns, flash bangs, and screaming, stay away.

Otavio Augusto 2012-05-22 12:22:51

Lech Majewski found out the essence of arts!

Lech Majewski shows himself like a superb person. He makes a greatdirecting in the movie 'The Mill and The Cross'. He shows that knowsall about history, coming back to 16th century, and remembering us witha special form: from the vision of the painter Pieter Bruegel. Histhinks, his questions and his eyes in the community that he is going tomake a painting about.The plot is more superb than the directing, so the screenplay is moreimportant than the directing, but the two are just the same. The storygoes on Belgium, where a clear society was rising. The people thereworks, plays and eats for surviving. So, the impiety comes. One cavalrysend from the king of Spanish kingdom comes to the community to sin,without knows, without piety, just for show us, audience, how cruelthey are.Jesus doesn't explain to us that we have to kill the people who doesn'tbelieve in god. But for the king of Spain, he did, or better, he thinksthat this is justice. No, man. This is impiety, and if we works likethat, the world is gonna to explode. Each one believe in what he wants.If we don't respect, we're showing prejudice, and it goes the same foreverybody. Because if we don't do this, the prejudice (plague from thedevil) will destroys us, and was this what happen to the SpanishKingdom, the movie doesn't show, because it is more specific, buteverybody who like history knows.The scenario and art directing are spectacular. Just nostalgic to us,shows a different age in such a simple way. Just "BRAVO" to Majewski!My reviews in Portuguese can be read in the site:http://cult-cine.blogspot.com/