Starring: Rutger Hauer, Peter York, Charlotte Rampling,
Director: Lech Majewski
Rating: ★★★★☆
Based on the book by historian Michael Gibson, this latest feature from Polish writer, painter and director Lech Majewski is an attempt to enact episodes from Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting The Procession to Calvary. Set almost entirely in Małopolska, Majewski’s film is an elaborate coalescence of live action footage and blue screen work in which the Christ episode is just one of a series of visual anecdotes.
The visual references are not limited to Bruegel’s imagery. The elaborate folds of Saint John and the Virgin Mary’s costumes recall the Flemish Primitive style. The indoor scenes featuring Bruegel’s children wildly playing, like in a Jean Vigo movie, evoke the light of Dutch interior paintings from 17th century.
The spider’s web carefully examined by Bruegel (played by a restrained Rutger Hauer) is both a symbol of the fragmentary perception of the world in medieval times and a symbol of God’s creation, which is also represented by the character of the miller observing humanity from a rocky pinnacle. It is Bruegel who gives the miller the signal to stop time and freeze mankind. God and the artist are, therefore, placed on the same level.
The slow shots are reminiscent of Michael Snow’s experimental video work and Dorota Roqueplo’s lavish costumes will charm anyone who has been entranced by the obsessional quality of Renaissance depictions of cloth and clothing.
Originally published by The Krakow Post on May 23, 2011