The Mill and the Cross" an extraordinary artistic achievement

By Ron Gilbert

Director, Lech Majewski does a brilliant orchestration in this film which is like watching an artist visually show how his painting is created and all of his inspirations.

Opening this complex painting via a combination of actors and horses with blue screen effects and 2D backdrops with historical, religious, contemporary and symbolic figures, with biblical travails depicted alongside sufferings of Flemish citizens persecuted by representatives of the Spanish inquisition.

 When you look at this film from that perspective you are totally enthralled. Your imagination will be delighted as will everyone around you, so that you will want to watch it again and again. This is a true labor of love.

This is a highly original but it also represents an innovative approach to the general emergence of Christian culture out of the age old patterns.

Included are characters commenting and adding opinions and comments as follows:

God (Marian Makula) is a miller atop an enormous windmill tower impassively regarding various scenes from his lofty perch which include the seizure by red-coated militia of one peasant (Mateusz Machnik) who is tortured and killed for presumed heresy. A wealthy burgher (Michael York) is periodically commenting sorrowfully on this state of affairs. Either alone or in conversation with Bruegel and is appalled by the invaders' misrule, even if he himself seems immune from harm. A mother (Charlotte Rampling) whose son has been dragged off to slaughter delivers in voiceover lamentations that are more personal and poetic; she is also the painting's Virgin Mary model. Meanwhile, Bruegel himself (Rutger Hauer) bemusedly explains the hidden meanings scattered throughout his masterwork, often in the form of conflated religious allegory and political protest.

So we are able to take an innovative look at the way myth commands our representations of the world and how we, today, at another "turning of the world", may look back on the age out of which we are already moving.

An Angelus Silesius and Polish Film Institute production in association with Telewizja Polska, Bokomotiv Filmproduktion, Odeon Studio, Silesia Film, 24 Media, Supra Film, Arkana Studio and Piramida Film. (International sales: Wide Management, Produced by Lech Majewski. Executive producer, Angelus Silesius. Directed by Lech Majewski. Screenplay, Michael Francis Gibson, Majewski,

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Majewski, Adam Sikora; editors, Eliot Ems, Norbert Rudzik; music, Majewski, Jozef Skrzek; production designers, Katarzyna Sobanska, Marcel Slawinski; art director, Stanislaw Porczyk; set decorators, Pracownia Graffitti, Izabela Handrysik, Iwona Cieciwa; costume designer, Dorota Roqueplo; vfx, Pawel Tybora, Odeon Film Studio; 3D animation, Mariusz Skrzypczynski; sound recordist (Dolby Digital), Marian Bogacki; sound designer, Majewski; supervising sound editor, Zbigniew Malecki; assistant directors, Krzysztof Lukaszewicz, Dorota Lis.

With: Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling, Michael York, Joanna Litwin, Dorota Lis, Bartosz Capowicz, Marian Makula, Sylwia Szczerba, Wojciech Miergulow, Ruta Kubas, Jan Wartak, Sebastian Cichonski, Lucjan Czerny, Oskar Huliczka, Adam Kwiatowski; Mateusz Machnik. (English dialogue)

http://www.themillandthecross.com/  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZeCX_zevJ0 

Opens at Nuart Theatre in West Los Angeles on September 30