Andrea Kirsh reviews Lech Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross, a new biogrphical film about the artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Kirsh writes that “Majewski captures Bruegel’s truth that great events occur amidst the shapeless narrative of everyday life. Just as remarkable is the effect he creates of taking us into the actual space of Bruegel’s painting. His characters, in perfect period costumes (if a bit too clean) and cast with remarkable fidelity to Bruegel’s coarse-featured peasants, move in and out of the painting as landscape settings switch between filmed and painted image.”

After screenings at Sundance and the Rotterdam Film Festival the film opens on September 14, 2011 at Film Forum, New York.