Häxan


Häxan is a Swedish-Danish silent film completed in 1920 and released in 1922. Written and directed by Benjamin Christensen, the film's documentary style is dramatized with horror sequences. Based partly on Christensen's study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide for inquisitors, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases or mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts.
With Christensen's meticulous recreation of medieval scenes and the lengthy production period, the film was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made, costing nearly two million Swedish kronor. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden, the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries for what were considered at that time graphic depictions of torture, nudity, and sexual perversion.

Plot

Part 1

A scholarly dissertation on the appearances of demons and witches in primitive and medieval culture, a number of photographs of statuary, paintings, and woodcuts are used as demonstrative pieces. In addition, several large scale models are employed to demonstrate medieval concepts of the structure of the solar system and the commonly accepted depiction of Hell.

Part 2

A series of vignettes theatrically demonstrating medieval superstition and beliefs concerning witchcraft, including Satan tempting a sleeping woman away from her husband's bed before terrorizing a group of monks. Also shown is a woman purchasing a love potion from a supposed witch, and a sequence showing a supposed witch dreaming of flying through the air and attending a witches' gathering.

Part 3

A long narrative broken up into several parts. Set in the Middle Ages, it concerns an old woman accused of witchcraft by a dying man's family. The narrative is used to demonstrate the treatment of suspected witches by the religious authorities of the time. The old woman, after being tortured, admits to heavy involvement in witchcraft, including detailed descriptions of a Witches' Sabbath, even going so far as to "name" other supposed witches, including two of the women in the dying man's household. Eventually, the dying man's wife is arrested as a witch when one of the clergymen accuses her of bewitching him.

Part 4

The final part of the film seeks to demonstrate how the superstitions of old are better understood now. Christensen seeks to make the claim that most who were accused of witchcraft were possibly mentally ill, and in modern times, such behavior is interpreted as a disease. His case revolves around vignettes about a somnambulist and a kleptomaniac, the implication being that these behaviors would have been thought of as demonically-influenced in medieval times whereas modern societies recognize them as psychological ailments.

Cast

The cast of Häxan includes:
After finding a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum in a Berlin bookshop, Christensen spent two years—from 1919 to 1921—studying manuals, illustrations and treatises on witches and witch-hunting. He included a lengthy bibliography in the original playbill at the film's premiere. He intended to create an entirely new film rather than an adaptation of literary fiction, which was the case for films of that day. "In I am against these adaptations... I seek to find the way forward to original films."
Christensen obtained funding from the large Swedish production company Svensk Filmindustri, preferring it over the local Danish film studios, so that he could maintain complete artistic freedom. He used the money to buy and refurbish the Astra film studio in Hellerup, Denmark. Filming then ran from February through October 1921. Christensen and cinematographer Johan Ankerstjerne filmed only at night or in a closed set to maintain the film's dark hue. Post-production required another year before the film premiered in late 1922. Total cost for Svensk Film, including refurbishing the Astra Film Studio, reached between 1.5 and 2 million kronor, making Häxan the most expensive Scandinavian silent film in history.

Scores

Häxan has had numerous different live scores over the years. When it premiered in Sweden, its accompaniment was compiled from pre-existing compositions. Details of the selection, which met with the director's enthusiastic approval, have been lost, but it was probably the same documented music as for the Copenhagen premiere two months later. In Copenhagen, it was played by a 50-piece orchestra, and this score, combining pieces by Schubert, Gluck, and Beethoven, was restored and recorded with a smaller ensemble by arranger/conductor Gillian Anderson for the 2001 Criterion Collection DVD edition.

Release

The film premiered simultaneously in four Swedish cities — Stockholm, Helsingborg, Malmö, and Gothenburg — on September 18, 1922, unusual for Sweden at the time. It received its Danish premiere in Copenhagen on November 7, 1922. It was re-released in 1931 in Denmark with an extended introduction by Christensen. The intertitles were also changed in this version. In 1968, Metro Pictures Corporation re-edited and re-released Häxan in the US as Witchcraft Through the Ages. It had added narration by William S. Burroughs and a jazz score by Daniel Humair, which was played by a quintet including Jean-Luc Ponty on violin.

Restoration and home video

The Swedish Film Institute has carried out three restorations of Häxan:
The 1976 restoration was released on DVD in the US and UK in 2001 by Criterion and Tartan Video, along with Witchcraft Through the Ages, while the 2007 was released on DVD in Sweden by Svenska Filminstitutet. In 2013, the 2012 digital restoration was released exclusively on US Blu-ray by Criterion.

Reception

Initial response

Academic James Kendrick writes that initial reviewers of Häxan "were confounded by boundary-crossing aesthetic." Its thematic content stirred controversy as well. A contemporary critic in Variety, for example, praised the film's acting, production, and its many scenes of "unadulterated horror", but added that "wonderful though this picture is, it is absolutely unfit for public exhibition." A Copenhagen reviewer was likewise offended by "the satanic, perverted cruelty that blazes out of it, the cruelty we all know has stalked the ages like an evil shaggy beast, the chimera of mankind. But when it is captured, let it be locked up in a cell, either in a prison or a madhouse. Do not let it be presented with music by Wagner or Chopin, to young men and women, who have entered the enchanted world of a movie theatre." Conversely, a critic for The New York Times wrote in 1929, "The picture is, for the most part, fantastically conceived and directed, holding the onlooker in a sort of medieval spell. Most of the characters seem to have stepped from primitive paintings." The film also acquired a cult following among surrealists, who greatly admired its subversion.

Modern response

In the years since its debut, Häxan has become regarded by critics and scholars as Christensen's masterpiece. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently has an 88% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.4/10, based on 16 reviews.
In PopMatters, David Sanjek wrote, "The dazzling manner in which Haxan shifts from illustrated lecture to historical reenactment to special effects shots of witches on their broomsticks to modern-dress drama pointed to ways the documentary format could be used that others would not draw on until years into the future." Peter Cowie similarly argued in Eighty Years of Cinema that it established Christensen as "an auteur of uncommon imagination and with a pictorial flair far ahead of his time." Time Out London called it a "weird and rather wonderful brew of fiction, documentary and animation". Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film three out of a possible four stars, lauding it as "visually stunning" and "genuinely scary". He additionally praised the director's performance as Satan.
It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which says "Part earnest academic exercise in correlating ancient fears with misunderstandings about mental illness and part salacious horror movie, Häxan is truly a unique work that still holds power to unnerve, even in today's jaded era."