Recent discussions with a cinephile friend caused me to remember two films I had filed away to watch and then forgot about completely: the 2011 film The Mill and the Cross directed by Lech Majewski and the 2013 film Hard to Be a God directed by the late Aleksei German. Both films are notable for their brilliant cinematography as well as the fact that not much happens in either film other than the mundanities of human life and human cruelty.
It was also hard to find both films. I rented Hard to Be a God on the streaming website Vudu for $2.99 and was able to watch The Mill and the Cross for free on another streaming site I previously hadn't heard of--Tubi. Both films are also produced by Kino Lorber, a company known for producing international cinema and weird, artistic shit.
Speaking of shit, Hard to Be a God is filled with human excrement, top to bottom and wall to wall. The film, which is in Russian with subtitles, filmed in black and white (a mercy to the audience, given what it often depicts) and is three hours long, is a slog. But it's a beautiful slog. A beautiful and often mind-numbingly boring slog.
The film takes place on a planet that is not Earth, but is very similar with one exception: it is eternally stuck in the Dark Ages. The inhabitants of this planet were never able to tip into the Renaissance because they kept killing all the intellectuals and artists (referred to as "wise guys"). A group of scientists from Earth came to this planet to observe and possibly see if they could encourage human and cultural progress without directly becoming involved in politics or technology. Well, it didn't work and now these Earthling scientists are stuck undercover on a mud-and-shit filled planet where rape, torture, and brutality are as normal as bread and butter.
The main character is Don Rumata (Leonid Yarmolnik), one of the scientists. He has gone undercover as a nobleman and he claims he was descended from a god. He is relatively kind compared to his nemesis, the disgusting Don Reba (not a scientist, an actual inhabitant of this planet). Don Reba stays in power by brutally suppressing intellectuals.
The "plot" of Hard to Be a God is incredibly thin--basically, Don Rumata travels around, people kill people, the end. What's more, the dialogue in the film is often random and non-sequitur. There is very little exposition to explain what we're watching, how any character relates to any other, etc. This is an incredibly frustrating film. The one saving grace is that the camera work and mise en scene are fascinating. The camera follows characters around in a style similar to a documentary, only much more intimate--it pushes its way right into the thick of interactions and then swivels around, giving the audience brief glimpses of an incredibly detailed tableau. I've heard the film compared to a Hieronymous Bosch painting and that description is apt. Especially since a lot of what we see is disgusting and violent--disembowelment, people pissing and shitting every where, people sniffing EVERYTHING and claiming it all smells like shit. Just general grossness and crudity.
I'm really selling this film hard, huh? But seriously, I would only recommend Hard to Be a God to big time cinephiles because it's going to be of interest to literally no one else. Hell, I'm a cinephile and I could barely stand it. That's not to say the film is "bad" in the sense of being poorly made. It's been called as masterpiece and I can see why. It took something like six years to film and another seven to edit--and the director died before it was complete, so his son and wife had to complete it for him. It's truly a unique and magnificent work of art, just not a particularly pleasant one.
Grade:
Visuals/camerawork: A
Plot: C-
Overall: B-
The Mill and the Cross is similarly beautiful to look at (much less shit, too), but in a completely different way. The film is basically a live-action rendering of Pieter Bruegel's painting The Procession to Calvary. It depicts scenes of Bruegel (played by the wonderful Rutger Hauer) discussing and painting his masterpiece, as well as scenes from the painting being acted out. It should be noted that both the actual painting and this film are a sort of mashup of the Biblical story of Jesus' procession to his crucifixion on Golgotha and the politics of 16th century Netherlands, namely the Spanish Inquisition. So while we see the crucifixion of Jesus, and Mary (Charlotte Rampling) mourning him, everyone is wearing Dutch clothing. And the men who crucify Jesus are not Romans, but Spanish militiamen. The actual procession to Calvary takes place in the streets of a Dutch city. You get the idea.
Like Hard to Be a God, The Mill and the Cross is slow-moving (though, blissfully, only 95 minutes long), occasionally violent (scenes of heretics tortured or buried alive), and fantastically detailed. But it's much more easy on the eyes. It also contains very little dialogue, preferring to show rather than tell.
The Mill and the Cross is another movie I would only recommend to dedicated cinephiles. While definitely an easier watch than Hard to Be a God, it takes a lot of patience. Watching the film is akin to visiting an art museum--a contemplative and visual experience more than an entertaining one.
Grade:
Visuals/camerawork: A+
Plot: C
Overall: B
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