Don’t expect a conventional biopic about Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Don’t expect a conventional film anyhow. Lech Majewski, Polish artist, poet, writer and director pays a visual tribute to one of his favourite works of art by Bruegel. The procession to Calvary, painted in 1564.
Majewski first saw the works of the Flemish Master in a museum in Vienna where he was confronted with the artist’s Weltanschauung. A view of the world that sucked him right in and transported him to the landscapes of long by gone eras filled with people and their daily routines.
And that is exactly the ambitious layout of The Mill and the Cross. To give the viewer that same sensation, sucking them into the painting. During the big talk before the European premiere of the picture at the International Film Festival Rotterdam Majewski stated he always had the feeling he could live in Bruegel’s landscapes.
Using state of the art technology he succeeds to give the audience the feeling to live for a mere 90 minutes in the landscape of the painting. The images are of a dream like quality, with intense bright colors like the ruby red tunics of the mercenaries to the deep ochres disappearing into the sfumato on the horizon. This picture would no doubt amaze Bruegel on seeing the seamless overlapping moving image and his original painting. Layer after layer achieved this effect, one shot in particular consists of a staggering 143 layers! Real locations to match the landscape in the painting were scouted all over the globe, from the land of the Czech Republic to the clouds of New Zealand. The composition is explained by voice-over of Bruegel himself, portrayed by Rutger Hauer, moving through his own painted arena. Short story lines are used to introduce some essential figures in the painting, like the mother, played by Charlotte Rampling, of the condemned son, while Michael York portrays a wealthy banker and art collector.
The culmination of the film lies in the freeze moment in which all figures are halted by a gesture of Bruegel’s hand followed by another hand gesture performed by the miller high above in his mill on the jagged rock overlooking the spectacle, stopping the vanes in a Bruegelian metaphor of God stopping time. He just makes bread and looks on. Subsequently the camera glides the audience through the painting during a dazzling scene covering multiple points of view of the canvas. The audience was clearly holding its breath in the old Luxor theatre during this piece of bravado.
Majewski makes the painting come to life and what guts to make a feature about it! He goes to great lengths explaining the philosophy of Bruegel in which everyday life is more important than the bigger than life events in the Bible. Jesus is even obscured by Spanish soldiers and Flemish peasants. After the crucifixion life goes on and children playing replace the cruel acts filling the landscape in the painting.
The Mill and the Cross is of invaluable educational importance, even tough too theoretical to get carried away by. A fascinating experiment drenched in love for painting that will inform you better about Pieter Bruegel the Elder than any documentary you’ll ever see.
Rating: ****
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