Witch (Haxan). 1922. Directed by Benjamin Christensen.

(9/25/99-10/3/99)

This film is a one-of-a-kind experience, ambitious and fascinating. It holds up very well indeed. Some of the fantastic imagery seems kind of silly today and I wonder how much of wehat we laugh at was intended that way. I really think Christensen's performance as the Devil, with that wagging tongue, was played for laughs.

The cruelty horrifies and frightens. At the center of the film is a story of how an old woman is accused of witchcraft and tortured and how the accusations spread. It is so depressing. The old woman was incredible--her face was so expressive and pathetic. Here was this (I assume) homeless person who came into a house looking for food and suddenly is accused of all sorts of dire deeds and taken away and tortured. It is simply horrible watching people crack under torture and start telling their questioners what they want to hear. One wonders why the torturers never doubt the validity of these "confessions."

What was really awful--and yet rang so true--was how this woman started implicating the very people who caused her all this trouble. It is heartbreaking to see someone doing this--yet it is perfectly understandable.

It was also upsetting to watch the clerics completely abandon integrity and tell a woman that they would set her free if she would tell them how to make thunder from water. She does, it is a trick, and she is dragged away to the stake. They even use her infant child's welfare as a means to coerce her.

I actually found these scenes of witch hysteria more interesting than the fantasy sequences of witches and devils. Unfortunately for me, the blue tinting made the scenes of the witches' sabbats hard to follow.

The scenes trying to relate the witch hysteria of the past to modern psychiatric conditions were interesting, but not as much as the earlier scenes of witch hysteria. They were anti-climactic.
I found the mode of direct address by the director very unusual, especially in a silent film, but I was able to accept it and take the film seriously.


Just another point I wanted to mention about Haxan: The film certainly brought out how the accusations of witchcraft were a means of preying on women who were elderly and helpless. That made an impression on me and made me think about how vulnerable the elderly really are.