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The Mill And The Cross is a handsomely presented speculative account of 16th century Belgian artist Pieter Bruegel’s creation of his The Way to Calvary. It’s a good film, something different, and something difficult to describe. There’s no real plot or conventional story arc, very little dialog, and even less drama. This film, adapted from a contemporary book of the same title by Michael Francis Gibson, is a meditation on the production and significance of this one particular painting which is a famous illustration of Jesus Christ’s journey to his place of execution. The painting itself, which is shown in all stages of development and from many angles, is dense – a depiction of the crucifixion populated by hundreds of peasants watching Christ being escorted through the crowd by the occupying Spaniards (instead of Roman soldiers – like the film, the painting is set during the painter’s...

"Pieter Bruegel packed his 16th-century Passion painting, The Way to Calvary, with hundreds of figures based on his own contemporaries, conflating the persecution of Christ with the Spanish occupation that raged outside his studio," begins Eric Hynes in Time Out New York. "In a feat of artistry worthy of its source, Polish director Lech Majewski (Gospel According to Harry) takes us deep inside the Flemish master's beautiful nightmare, bringing to life dozens of the work's characters, from carousing peasants and murderous redcoats to the painter himself — uncannily embodied by former replicant and shotgun-wielding hobo Rutger Hauer. While Bruegel's painting told a story, Majewski's film is a deconstruction of said tale, forsaking traditional narrative structures for a series of authoritatively realized tableaux."

"Adapted from a book by the art critic Michael Francis Gibson, who wrote the screenplay with Mr Majewski, the film does not offer much plot," notes Daniel M Gold in the New York Times.

Polish filmmaker Lech Majewski’s new English language film The Mill and the Cross is a fascinating exercise in form and artistic experimentation. The film itself is a project brought forth by a dialogue between various art forms. It’s based on Michael Francis Gibson’s book of the same name and focuses on the lives of the many characters depicted in Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous work The Way to Calvary (1564), a painting that features literally hundreds of individuals and a crucifixion allegory to boot. It seems almost natural that such a film would arise from the meeting of artistic minds across centuries, using a relatively new art form to give temporality and space to another. And Majewski’s film, like any considerable work of visual art, has striking visuals and composition, not so much enlivening the everyday tasks of the characters in this painting with “realism” but depicting it through the...

Poster for The Mill and the Cross, starring Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling and Michael York The film made its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and is directed by Lech Majewski from the writing by Michael Francis Gibson and Majewski. Also, check out images from the film below the poster and read the synopis under that. 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, The Mill & The Cross focuses on a dozen characters whose life stories unfold and intertwine in a panoramic landscape populated by villagers and red-caped horsemen. Among them are Bruegel himself (played by Rutger Hauer), his friend and art collector Nicholas Jonghelinck (Michael York), and the Virgin...

Poster for The Mill and the Cross, starring Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling and Michael York The film made its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and is directed by Lech Majewski from the writing by Michael Francis Gibson and Majewski. Also, check out images from the film below the poster and read the synopis under that. 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, The Mill & The Cross focuses on a dozen characters whose life stories unfold and intertwine in a panoramic landscape populated by villagers and red-caped horsemen. Among them are Bruegel himself (played by Rutger Hauer), his friend and art collector Nicholas Jonghelinck (Michael York), and the Virgin...

Preview

“One Happy Island,” One Illustrious Fest

The second annual Aruba International Film Festival celebrates the art of cinema with film screenings, special guests and hands-on training

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Aruba Confidential I: Hot Stars on a Hot Night

The Caribbean island’s second annual film festival kicks off with Kim Cattrall walking the red carpet

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“The Guard”

Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle star in an independent Irish film that puts a fresh spin on the fish-out-of-water-meets-interracial-buddy-comedy

“The Son of No One”

Dito Montiel ‘s film is a jumbled mess — add to that a ridiculous premise, absurd storytelling choices, and you get a cinematic disaster

“Meet Monica Velour”

Kim Cattrall stars as an ’80s-era porn star who’s reached middle age in this sweet coming-of-ager with unwitting social commentary

“Kites”

Indian director Anurag Basu and producer Rakesh Roshan bring their Hindi sensibility to a largely English- and Spanish-language production set in...

Preview

“One Happy Island,” One Illustrious Fest

The second annual Aruba International Film Festival celebrates the art of cinema with film screenings, special guests and hands-on training

Blogs

Aruba Confidential I: Hot Stars on a Hot Night

The Caribbean island’s second annual film festival kicks off with Kim Cattrall walking the red carpet

Reviews

“The Guard”

Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle star in an independent Irish film that puts a fresh spin on the fish-out-of-water-meets-interracial-buddy-comedy

“The Son of No One”

Dito Montiel ‘s film is a jumbled mess — add to that a ridiculous premise, absurd storytelling choices, and you get a cinematic disaster

“Meet Monica Velour”

Kim Cattrall stars as an ’80s-era porn star who’s reached middle age in this sweet coming-of-ager with unwitting social commentary

“Kites”

Indian director Anurag Basu and producer Rakesh Roshan bring their Hindi sensibility to a largely English- and Spanish-language production set in...

Elliot V. Kotek interviews actor Rutger Hauer and director Lech Majewski about their new film “The Mill and the Cross” at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

“The Mill and the Cross” is inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting “The Way to Calvary” and is based on the book “The Mill and the Cross” by Michael Francis Gibson.

Hauer confirmed on Friday to Entertainment Weekly that he will be playing Van Helsing in Dario Argento’s horror flick “Dracula 3D.”...

Elliot V. Kotek interviews actor Rutger Hauer and director Lech Majewski about their new film “The Mill and the Cross” at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

“The Mill and the Cross” is inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting “The Way to Calvary” and is based on the book “The Mill and the Cross” by Michael Francis Gibson.

Hauer confirmed on Friday to Entertainment Weekly that he will be playing Van Helsing in Dario Argento’s horror flick “Dracula 3D.”...

After announcing the 58 films in four categories that would be eligible for awards at Sundance, the film fest has now announced the next 57 movies to be screened this coming January. These 57 films are of course out of competition and will be included in Premieres, Next, Spotlight, New Frontiers and Midnight categories. Most are big name projects from already established filmmakers and some have already made their way around film festival in 2010. The list includes Kevin Smith’s Red State, Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, Morgan Spurlock’s documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Submarine, I Saw the Devil (which had plenty of buzz at Tiff) and my most anticipated film of 2011, Hobo With a Shotgun.

Here is the full list:

Premieres

To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance Film Festival Premieres section offers the latest work from American and international directors as well as world premieres of highly anticipated films.

Festival Adds New Native Showcase

As Previously Announced, Slacker to Screen From the Collection

Park City, Ut – Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections Next (<=>), Spotlight, New Frontier, Park City at Midnight, as well as a new Native Showcase. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/.

Trevor Groth, Director of Programming said, “The Sundance Film Festival is uniquely a festival of discovery and we are once again privileged to showcase the work of talented new artists, including a special section devoted to Native filmmakers. But it’s also exciting to see returning directors honing their skills and emerging with dazzling new films. And the Next section highlights visionary work that shows aesthetic creativity is not limited by budget.

Yes, you read that right, they are out of competition but into lesbians courtesy of the midnight lineup.

What do we have to look forward to waiting two years for? Let's see..

Hobo With a Shotgun

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (you had me at lesbian)

Attenberg (I'm loving the coming Greek weird wave)

And many many more films, some of which we'll probably never get to see. Damn.

Full list after the break.

Next ()

Eight American films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking. Each is a world premiere.

Bellflower / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Evan Glodell) - A ballad for every person who has ever loved and lost - with enough violence, weapons, action and sex to tell a love story with apocalyptic stakes. Cast: Evan Glodell, Jessie Wiseman, Tyler Dawson, Rebekah Brandes.

The Lie / U.S.A. (Director: Joshua Leonard; Screenwriters: Jeff Feuerzeig,...

Following yesterday's announcement of the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions, the Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the second part of their lineup, which includes the more starry-eyed Premieres section, the best-of-fests Spotlight section, the sure-to-be-culty Park City at Midnight section, the low-budget Next section, and the more experimental New Frontier section (an extension of New Frontier Program, the collection of video art installations which has already been noted here for playing James Franco's dramatic multimedia examination of "Three's Company.")

In addition to the return of filmmakers like "Chuck & Buck"'s Miguel Arteta, "Clockwatchers" director Jill Sprecher, Kevin Smith and "The Station Agent"'s Thomas McCarthy to Park City, the festival will also welcome less frequent or first-time Sundance attendees such as Hollywood types Al Pacino ("Son of No One") and Tobey Maguire ("The Details") and mumblecore alums Joe Swanberg ("Uncle Kent," which announced it's been...

Though I secretly wish that I could just dump in favor of the huge tentpole world preems that are the focus of our site, the New Frontier Section is unfortunately the section that I rarely venture into. Publicists would be kind enough to push me to reconsider this decision. As we previously reported, Lynn Hershman Leeson's Tiff debuted doc will be showing up at the fest, below we have Matthew Lessner's wacko The Woods (see trailer) promises several laughs and Sundance 2011 appears to be Rutger Hauer year - as he is coming to the fest with not one (Hobo with a Shotgun), but The Mill & the Cross as well. Jess + Moss /U.S.A. (Director: Clay Jeter; Screenwriters: Clay Jeter and Debra Jeter) Jess (18) and Moss (12) are second cousins who have spent their summers together since either of them can remember. Without immediate families that they can relate to,...

The Sundance Film Festival announced the in competition film line-up for the film festival running January 20th through January 30th 2011 in Park City, Utah.

Today the festival has announced the line-up for the non-competition films and there is one hell of a line-up! There are a ton of great films that will be premiering at the festival, and if you're going you have a lot of great films to choose from!

Each film has an incredible cast and a great story. These films include Cedar Rapids, about a man traveling to an insurance conference, featuring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly and Sigourney Weaver; Kevin Smith's Red State, about a group of misfits encounter extreme fundamentalism in Middle America; The Details, about domestic tensions spawned by raccoons with Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney, Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert; I Melt With You, starring Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay,...

Yesterday, we reported the films playing in-competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Today, Sundance has announced the films playing in the out-of-competition lineups for “Next(<=>)”, Spotlight, Native Showcase, and Park City at Midnight. Among the films playing are Hobo with a Shotgun, the critically-acclaimed Submarine, Lucky McKee’s new horror film The Woman, and Meek’s Cutoff starring Michelle Williams and Paul Dano. Each lineup has its own mission statement that relates to the films selected. The festival will also be showing Richard Linklater’s Slacker at part of its “From the Collection” lineup.

Hit the jump to check out the new films announced. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th.

Here’s the press release and lineups:

2011 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films In Next (<=>), Spotlight, New Frontier And Park City At Midnight

Festival Adds New Native Showcase

As Previously Announced, Slacker to Screen From the Collection

Native Showcase...

Well, yesterday, we saw the full list of films in-competition; today, we get to see those titles that have been selected for Sundance 2011′s out-of-competition lineup.

And as I said with yesterday’s post, I’ll be going over the complete list, highlighting titles that need to be, taking into consideration this blog’s specific interests. The only title that immediately stands out is Brit John Akomfrah’s The Nine Muses, which MsWOO positively reviewed, after seeing it at the London Film Festival in October. Read her review Here.

But look for future posts profiling any other titles I deem worthy. I’ve applied for press credentials to attend next year’s festival. I won’t know until the 23rd of this month, whether I’ve been granted press access or not. If I am, I will attend the festival; and if I’m not, well, I probably won’t.

Well, if the Competition titles at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival don't generate any early year Oscar buzz, I think it's safe to say the Out of Competition titles will. Several films that have already been seen and positively reviewed can be found in the fest's Spotlight Line-Up along with a batch of anticipated hopefuls in the Premiere Section.

Beginning with the festival's premieres, Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) is bringing Cedar Rapids to Park City where it will debut before it hits theaters only a couple weeks later on February 11. "Big Love" co-producers, Jill and Karen Sprecher are bringing an impressive cast for their crime drama The Convincer. Jacob Aaron Estes's The Details, which was shot only a few miles from my house in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, arrives with Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Tobey Maguire in tow.

Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) will debut I Melt with You,...

Wednesday, the 2011 Sundance Film Festival announced the 58 films in four categories [1] that would be eligible for awards. Today, they've announced the next slice of their line up - 57 out of competition films in the Premieres, Next, Spotlight, New Frontiers and Midnight categories. This is generally where you get many of the bigger name projects and this year is no exception. We already knew [2] that Kevin Smith's Red State would be on the list, but there's also Tom McCarthy's new film Win Win, Morgan Spurlock's documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, the highly buzzed-about Submarine, Fantastic Fest darling I Saw the Devil as well as Hobo With a Shotgun and a whole bunch more including films with Al Pacino, Tobey Maguire, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Rudd and others. As we said yesterday, the announcement of the movies playing the 2011 Sundance Film Festival is like looking into our film futures.

Yesterday we revealed the in-competition line-up for this years Sundance Film Festival. Today the programmers have announced the second wave, the out-of-competition line-up. It includes six categories and you can check them all out below. We already knew Kevin Smith‘s Red State would be screening, as he announced on his podcast last night. The rest of this out-of-competition line-up is pretty unbelievable.

We get Cedar Rapids (from Youth In Revolt‘s Miguel Arteta), Mark Pellington‘s I Melt With You, My Idiot Brother starring Paul Rudd, Tom McCarthy‘s Win Win, as well as Dito Montiel‘s third feature The Son of No One. We also have new documentaries by Morgan Spurlock and Eugene Jarecki. Some of my favorite Tiff films are also making an appearance, including Submarine (pictured above) and Meek’s Cutoff. Check it out below.

Premieres

To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance...