Independent distributors Kino Video will release on Blu-ray Polish director Lech Majewski's (Gospel According to Harry, Glass Lips) The Mill and the Cross (2011), starring Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling, and Michael York. Earlier this year, the film had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Street date is January 31th.
What would it be like to step inside a great work of art, have it come alive around you, and even observe the artist as he sketches the very reality you are experiencing? Lech Majewski brings to life Pieter Bruegel's 1564 epic masterpiece The Way to Calvary, the story of the crucifixion, setting it in 16th century Flanders under brutal Spanish occupation. Rutger Hauer plays the artist, Michael York his patron, and Charlotte Rampling the Virgin Mary. As epic events unfold, bawdy country living continues unabated: couples entwine, musicians play wind instruments, peasants amuse themselves walking on stilts, and children scurry about. Using sophisticated computer technology, the filmmaker creates a brilliantly complex and fascinating multi-layered dreamscape that melds art, history, and religion with the quotidian joys and struggles of ordinary people.