I’ve previewed two films that will screen at the San Francisco International Film Festival in coming weeks. I saw both on DVD screeners. Here’s what I thought about them:
A The Mill and the Cross, SFMOMA, Saturday, April 23, 12:30; Kabuki, Wedesday, April 27, 9:00. Painting with the wide palette that 21st century cinema allows, Lech
Majewski creates a masterwork about Bruegel creating one of his masterworks, The Way to Calvary. True to Bruegel’s style, the film starts with the day-to-day lives of ordinary, 16th-century peasants. But life isn’t a rustic paradise for these commoners. Flanders is part of the Spanish Empire and its Inquisition. Using nature, paint, and digital effects, Majewski creates not a realistic biopic but a visual feast that moves from the world of Bruegel’s experience to the world of his imagination. Bruegel made his statement about religious intolerance. Majewski made his about Bruegel. Both are worth looking at.
D- The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, Kabuki, Saturday, April 23, 12:45; New People (VIZ Cinema), Sunday, April 24, 5:15; Pacific Film Archive, Sunday, May 1, 1:30. From 1966 until 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu ruled Romania with an iron grip. Then his 
own people executed him and his wife. That’s a great story, but Andrei Ujica misses most of it, instead giving us three hours of repetitive, propagandistic "news" footage with some home movies thrown in. How many times can you watch him honored by the Chinese? How many birthday pageants must you attend? How often can you watch his family happily hunting big game? There’s a compelling story of great evil inside this footage. But rather than finding it, Ujica just presents the footage. I should mention that the DVD I saw had a horrible transfer; it’s possible that the film is significantly better when properly presented. But I doubt it.
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