Häxan (1922)
(Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages)
Country: SW
Technical: bw(tinted) 104m
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Cast: Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan, Elith Pio, Tora Teje
Synopsis:
An account of sorcery and devilry through the ages, in seven serial-style chapters, beginning with a 'slideshow' of illustrative material and moving to a detailed account of witch hunt fever in fifteenth century Sweden, to end on analogous contemporary material surrounding the phenomenon of hysteria.
Review:
Thoroughly researched, graphically detailed enactment of suitably diabolical goings-on, ranging from the assembly of potions and ointments and their effects on clergy to the ruthless reprisals inflicted by the same on the feminine sex. The various hags and demons are gleefully repellent, the latter with suggestively wagging tongues, and among the trimmings that got the film banned for many years are 'blood from a birth-strangled babe', momentarily dangled over the cauldron, and a sleepwalking nude who comes to rest before a cemetery-dwelling demon in an attitude evoking fellation. The quality of the close-ups (focus, makeup, lighting) and other aspects of mise en scène are of a very high standard for the time; the tone is by turns cynical, tragic and debunking.
(Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages)
Country: SW
Technical: bw(tinted) 104m
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Cast: Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan, Elith Pio, Tora Teje
Synopsis:
An account of sorcery and devilry through the ages, in seven serial-style chapters, beginning with a 'slideshow' of illustrative material and moving to a detailed account of witch hunt fever in fifteenth century Sweden, to end on analogous contemporary material surrounding the phenomenon of hysteria.
Review:
Thoroughly researched, graphically detailed enactment of suitably diabolical goings-on, ranging from the assembly of potions and ointments and their effects on clergy to the ruthless reprisals inflicted by the same on the feminine sex. The various hags and demons are gleefully repellent, the latter with suggestively wagging tongues, and among the trimmings that got the film banned for many years are 'blood from a birth-strangled babe', momentarily dangled over the cauldron, and a sleepwalking nude who comes to rest before a cemetery-dwelling demon in an attitude evoking fellation. The quality of the close-ups (focus, makeup, lighting) and other aspects of mise en scène are of a very high standard for the time; the tone is by turns cynical, tragic and debunking.
(Häxan: Witchcraft through the Ages)
Country: SW
Technical: bw(tinted) 104m
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Cast: Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan, Elith Pio, Tora Teje
Synopsis:
An account of sorcery and devilry through the ages, in seven serial-style chapters, beginning with a 'slideshow' of illustrative material and moving to a detailed account of witch hunt fever in fifteenth century Sweden, to end on analogous contemporary material surrounding the phenomenon of hysteria.
Review:
Thoroughly researched, graphically detailed enactment of suitably diabolical goings-on, ranging from the assembly of potions and ointments and their effects on clergy to the ruthless reprisals inflicted by the same on the feminine sex. The various hags and demons are gleefully repellent, the latter with suggestively wagging tongues, and among the trimmings that got the film banned for many years are 'blood from a birth-strangled babe', momentarily dangled over the cauldron, and a sleepwalking nude who comes to rest before a cemetery-dwelling demon in an attitude evoking fellation. The quality of the close-ups (focus, makeup, lighting) and other aspects of mise en scène are of a very high standard for the time; the tone is by turns cynical, tragic and debunking.