Bruegel. The Mill and The Cross, the newest film by Lech Majewski, was inspired by the book THE MILL AND THE CROSS by Michael Francis Gibson. Called the wisest philosopher among painters, Pieter Bruegel’s epic masterpiece The Way To Calvary depicts the story of Christ’s Passion set in Flanders under brutal Spanish occupation in the year 1564, the very year Bruegel created his painting. From among the more than five hundred figures that fill Bruegel’s remarkable canvas, Bruegel. The Mill and the Cross focuses on a dozen characters whose life stories unfold and intertwine in a panoramic landscape populated by villagers and red-caped horsemen.
Belgian official release: 29 February, 2012

>>> More on Director's personal website: http://www.lechmajewski.com/html/mill_and_the_cross.html 

Director: Lech Majewski
Screenplay: Michael Francis Gibson & Lech Majewski
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling & Michael York.

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In 2005, in Paris, art critic Michael Francis Gibson saw Angelus, a film by Lech Majewski, for the first time. Gibson immediately gave Majewski a copy of his book The Mill and the Cross, which is an in-depth analysis of The Way to Calvary (1564) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Lech Majewski decided to make it into a film.
In The Way to Calvary, Pieter Bruegel situates the Passion of the Christ in Flanders, at the time of the bloody repression of the Reformation by the Spanish in the XVIth century. The Mill and the Cross brings to life a handful of the five hundred people depicted in the fresco, including Bruegel himself (played by Rutger Hauer), Bruegel’s patron Nicholas Jonghelinck (Michael York) and the Virgin Mary (Charlotte Rampling).
It has taken three years to wrap the film: a lengthy project which required patience and imagination, such as in the use of CG and 3D techniques. Indeed, Lech Majewski has brought together three kinds of images. To begin with, he used a blue background to encourage his actors to throw themselves into their roles. He then added backgrounds made up of two types of image: striking blown-up images of original landscapes by Bruegel and real landscapes akin to the aforementioned images, filmed in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and New Zealand. The special effect is the result of all of these images being superimposed.

Lech Majewski is also a painter, poet, writer, theatre producer, composer and video artist. In 2006, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) put on a retrospective of his audiovisual work.

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  Practical information

Screening
in English with FR/NL subtitles
in the presence of Lech Majewski
>>> Hall M, BOZAR (Rue Ravensteinstraat 23, 1000 Brussels) - MAP
>>> 28 February – 20:30
>>> €10

After the screening
The screening of the film will be followed by a conversation with Lech Majewski and Hugues Dayez (RTBF).
In English

This project on the BOZAR Website (online box office)

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  BOZAR



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Coproduction: BOZAR CINEMA | Cultural Service of the Polish Embassy | CNC coopérative nouveau cinéma