Time was when the very idea of a moving picture was mind-boggling. To see people walking on a movie screen created awe, or fright. But the visual artistry and technical progress of movies has reached heights that early filmmakers could not have imagined. Lech Majewski's "The Mill and the Cross," which opens here today, shows that advancement in many ways.
With a marvelous blend of live action, art and animation, Majewski has made a movie from a classic painting, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1564 masterpiece, "The Way to Calvary." There's a story — the painting tells one, of course, but Majewski also brings the painting to life, and lets it tell a story, too.
In the 16th century, Spanish troops were fighting in the Low Countries, spreading Catholicism across northern Europe and killing French, Dutch and Belgian Protestants who would not convert. Extreme cruelty was common, emphasized in a scene when a young farmer and his wife come to town to sell a cow. A group of soldiers takes the cow, spreadeagles the farmer on a wagon wheel and hoists it to the top of a tall pole, where circling crows eventually become bold enough to pluck the eyes from the helpless man.
From his post at the mill, a focal point in the community, Breugel (Rutger Hauer) discusses his world and its events with his patron, Nicholas Jonghelinck (Michael York), observes and sketches, and the painting slowly comes to life. It's a fabulous painting, staggering in its details, and Majewski does a superb job in putting it all together.
The Mill and the Cross opens today at the Plaza Frontenac
— Joe