Films > Tribute to Majewski > The Mill and the Cross
This film, mesmerizing in its beauty, is based on a painting titled The Procession to Calvary by Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The 16th-century masterpiece depicts Jesus bearing the cross on his way to Cavalry, where he is to be crucified, while at the same time creating a richly detailed world in which secondary characters and events effectively take center stage. Majewski has said that he first encountered Bruegel’s painting at a young age, was drawn into it, and returned again and again to the museum in Vienna where it is exhibited to study the composition’s infinite elements. Indeed, Majewski’s close scrutiny of the work was channeled into The Mill & the Cross, and his ability to breathe new life into Bruegel’s painting is nothing short of breathtaking. He transports the viewer into the painting, and transforms Bruegel’s two-dimensional work of art into a tangible reality. With his meticulous attention to detail, Majewski re-creates the tableau that Bruegel invented – the world in which the flourmill standing upright in the landscape represents life, and the broken man bearing the cross inches closer to death.
