THE MILL AND THE CROSS
Sunday, November 13th at 2:45PM, Click Here to Buy Tickets
Co-Presented by The Tucson Museum of Art
OFFICIAL SELECTION / 2011 Sundance Film Festival
Featuring an introduction by Julie Sasse, Chief Curator at The Tucson Museum of Art
ARIZONA PREMIERE
“No description can do justice to “The Mill and the Cross,” which must be seen to be fully appreciated.” – V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST
The rich and fertile imagination of Polish artist/filmmaker Lech Majewski finds its perfect subject in Flemish master Pieter Bruegel’s 1564 painting The Way to Calvary. Using a combination of green-screen techniques, location shooting, and a vast matte backdrop painted by Majewski himself, this may be the closest a feature film has ever come to being a painting. The effect is just as awe-inspiring as the original work which depicts the crucifixion of Christ transposed into the artist’s own era, a time when Flemish territory was occupied by Spanish mercenaries. Majewski restages the painting, magnifying each cluster of characters and elaborating on their stories (Charlotte Rampling plays the painting’s lamenting Mary). An analysis of the work (based on the book by Michael Francis Gibson, who also wrote the screenplay) is delivered by Bruegel himself (played by Rutger Hauer) in conversations with an art collector (Michael York). This extraordinarily ambitious melding of film and painting is a unique cinematic experience and a jaw-dropping spectacle that is not to be missed.
(Directed by Lech Majewski, POLAND, 2011, 97 mins, NR) 35mm
