The Mill and the Cross (the 2011 film)

This is one movie where everything, every other element, is second to one of them, in this case the visual effects. This is also one movie about a painting where the painting itself is the main protagonist. 

It was at some point in 1564 that Flemish artist, Pieter Bruegel The Elder (Rutget Hauer) finished his masterpiece called The Procession to the Calvary. The movie The Mill and The Cross (2011) refers to that event showing the people he used as inspiration for the more than five hundred characters depicted in his painting where a mill represents Heaven and the miller is God. Hauer does not make much of an effort becoming Bruegel whom he seems to have understood perfectly and there is also Michael York as the man who commissioned Bruegel to create such work and also Charlotte Rampling as Bruegel's wife. I don't know much about the director, Lech Majewski, but you can see his hand through the entire work which it is obvious came to be thanks to a personal vision, probably Majewski's vision. Besides the music is the perfect companion to this stunning piece of art.

Though slow-paced this is a movie you can never get bored with, especially because of the visual aspect which intertwines so many little stories into one which is that of the painting itself as though the viewer were in a museum and took the time to see each one of the sections of the monumental work that is The Procession to the Calvary offering at the same time the "outside events" that were connected to the development of the painting itself. Sometimes it seems as though it is the painting the one narrating with an unheard voice the events that led to its creation. And perhaps because it is something different, an original refreshing take on a classical piece of art, also quite distinct from the usual junk we receive from Hollywood that this Polish production deserves a look. It is truly a must-see.

Five stars out of five for this one.