I get why someone might think the Burroughs cut is an aberration, but I love it so much, in part because it reminds us of how mutable early and silent film was - reels reordered by exhibitors, accompanists actively mocking serious works. In 1968, Metro Pictures Corporation re-edited and re-released Häxan in the US as Witchcraft Through the Ages. I wonder how he’d feel about it …”. As is, it already kind of works like cut-ups: the results of the experiment are often fruitless, but when all elements at play line up just right, it feels like a work of cosmic genius. Burroughsian voiceover and image cleanup actually deducted from the source material’s charm. The narration, combined with Christensen's metal pointer, recalls a forgotten lineage of the cinema: the illustrated lecture as gonzo entertainment. Release date: September 12, 1968 Running time: 74 minutes (1968 version) Country: Sweden, Denmark Language: English. Directed by Benjamin Christensen. Mobile site. Sadly, some lessons don’t hold. ( Log Out / Trimming the fat for this version is fine. I found the score too comical and doesn't match at all with some of the stunning, creepy images. With jazzed up dialogue in its updated intertitles and a 77min runtime designed to maintain even the most drugged out of attention spans, Witchcraft Through the Ages feels like Balch tricking young weirdos into eating their Landmark Cinema vegetables by emphasizing the already-present exploitation film pleasures of its imagery.
Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Häxan became a cult favorite when it was rediscovered in the '60s, with underground cinemas embracing the film for its striking visual style and subversive nature. It's a neat reinterpretation and it keeps with its jazz influences. ( Log Out / One day I'll have to make time to watch the other version.
1,150 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc. A list that is trying to contain every horror film made that is not lost and is found on the…, Rocky LaForge 18,806 films 2,204 58 Edit, Andrew Liverod 11,881 films 376 17 Edit. An experimental work assembled by beat filmmaker Antony Balch, Witchcraft Through the Ages re-interprets the landmark 1922 documentary Häxan for the druggy counterculture crowd of the late 60s. Change ). 76 mins
I thought the original needed more sound but oh boy, narrating it like an educational film from the 60’s was NOT the right solution. It received its Danish premiere in Copenhagen on 7 November 1922. Originally released in 1922, Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen created one of the most controversial films of the silent era when he produced Häxan, a semi-documentary investigation of witchcraft and occult practices in the Middle Ages. It's still carried along by the strength of those filmed images and the sentiment behind it, I don't think there's any reason to choose this instead of the original, but it was interesting enough that this was even done in 1968 that I think it was worth one watch. a placeholder for a three-part series of witches through history, literature, and film on youtube by In Praise of Shadows that's better than any documentary I've seen so far.
I genuinely would have preferred silence over most of the score. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. On a normal day, I’d give the original version of Häxan 4 1/2 stars.
A more chaotic, poetic version of this same collaboration could have lead to something much more transcendent, however, a cinematic version of real life witchcraft. The eye barely has enough time to scan the woodcut engravings before the image cuts to another. A 1968 collaboration between jazz musician Daniel Humair and beat author William S. Burroughs that recuts and reinterprets the 1922 silent film "Haxan" with a Burroughs' dark and wryly comic tone.