This is a unique attempt to transpose a painting into alive action. There were other films inspired by paintings; for example the "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2003) and "Nightwatching" (2007) - but this is the first time I see a painting slowly coming to life on the screen.
"The Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a decent fictional story inspired by the subject of the painting by Vermeer and the incredibly bad "Nightwatching" can forever ruin Rembrandt's "Night Watch" for art lovers.
However in the Mill a Cross there is no any real plot; it just portrays the brutality of the Spanish occupation by random vignettes based on the details of The "Procession to Calvary" by Bruegel - a major masterpiece of this Netherlandish genius.
The seamless integration of the painting's landscape, slowly filled by the figures and finally materializing into Bruegel's vision is very skilfully done and impressive, as is the richness of colours, textures and details. My only criticism is the often unnecessary graphic depiction of violence. Yes, those were violent times but a better approach would have been the one in fact used by Bruegel himself, hinting rather than directly showing: the distant gallows, the row of torture wheels on the horizon, the remnant of a cloth on the right margin wheel.
"The Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a decent fictional story inspired by the subject of the painting by Vermeer and the incredibly bad "Nightwatching" can forever ruin Rembrandt's "Night Watch" for art lovers.
However in the Mill a Cross there is no any real plot; it just portrays the brutality of the Spanish occupation by random vignettes based on the details of The "Procession to Calvary" by Bruegel - a major masterpiece of this Netherlandish genius.
The seamless integration of the painting's landscape, slowly filled by the figures and finally materializing into Bruegel's vision is very skilfully done and impressive, as is the richness of colours, textures and details. My only criticism is the often unnecessary graphic depiction of violence. Yes, those were violent times but a better approach would have been the one in fact used by Bruegel himself, hinting rather than directly showing: the distant gallows, the row of torture wheels on the horizon, the remnant of a cloth on the right margin wheel.