8mm Forum: "Witchcraft Through The Ages" AKA. Haxan

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Posted by Bradford A Moore (Member # 426) on January 12, 2011, 10:20 AM:

Last night I watched a newly purchased 8mm Niles print of Benjamin Christensen's (1922) horror documentary classic "Witchcraft Through The Ages", AKA Haxan. For starters this is a film I have been searching for many years, and always seem to get out bid on by a dollar or two.

A couple of weeks ago during a snow storm we lost power about an hour before the auction. I wasn't going to let this slip by again, so I called a friend in CA to make the bid for me. As I waited patiently by candle light for the outcome, as you can expect the anticipation was building. My friend to make it only worse took an extra half hour after the auctions close, and I thought for sure it was going to be the same, and I had lost again.

The phone rang, and I had won, and under my bid as well, which is always a good thing. As fate would have it, the lights came on and all was great. All good things worth waiting for need a proper introduction.

Just before projection, I was going through some of my fathers old classical albums searching for the rite music to set the mood. I first tried Dvorak, but that didn't seem to work. I then found a J.S. Bach recording of the harpsichord, which worked nicely. The first few notes burst in beautifully with the opening credits. After the credits it goes into a series of woodcuts and paintings describing witchcraft of the old, which was very bright and continued to work well with movie.

Then we go into the second part of the the reel, which was in the old witches shack, and I was surprised for a Niles print that it wasn't washed out, but very crisp. Its only flaw, which was just in this reel, and in the second 200ft was that it was too dark, and a little difficult to read the inter-titles. I was using a Keystone K105, which takes a DDB bulb, which is 750 watts, I'm hoping with a DFD, which is 1000 watts, that it will do the trick. Towards the end of the reel I thought I may be losing My bulb, because the light was darkening and brighting. Sadly it was a print flaw, but only lasted a second or two.

On too the second reel, which was much brighter and the the inter-titles could be read with ease. For those who have seen this film, this is now during the Witch ritual, which is probably the clearest, and brightest part of the film. This is also where The Devil played by Christensen himself seduces a young woman while sleeping from her bed, and from her husband, to make some hanky panky. Its also with in this reel we move on to the Monastery, and The Devil is having his way with filling the munks with un pure thoughts.

It isn't until the third reel which is a little washed out, but still very watch-able, that we see what happens with them. A young munk who is touched on the arm by a young woman, who is asking him something, and even though he is sworn to silence, begins to feel thoughts for the opposite sex that he had never thought of before.

He then after a while of pondering this goes to one of his elder munks, and explains what the Devil has brought on to him. He is then taken in to a private room where he lashed by his elder, in means of purifying his sole. This is where there was some great camera work for this early example in cinema takes place. While he is being lashed his face in double exposed, in front of him and bigger. You can't tell if his expressions, are from pain or orgasmic pleasure. This then moves on to finish the reel, with some examples of early torture devices, that would have been used at this time.

In the beginning of the fourth and last reel the Devil moves on to the nuns, which only seems fitting, to go full circle. One in particular is feeling thoughts that are un pure and chooses a belt with spikes, which she places around her lower stomach area and pulls tight. The image then goes up to her, as we see tears roll down her face.

Then there is another nun who we see is being taunted by the Devil to do mischief, and get the other nuns in a panic thinking she has gone mad. Unfortunately during most of this scene it is a bit washed out, but still very watch-able, considering most of the film has been much better than expected for a Niles print.

The rest of the film in its last couple of scenes show elderly ugly women that society has cast them out for being a witch do there natural deformities. There is also a woman from present time being the early 20's that has become a kleptomaniac, which has been brought on by the Devil, and tries to steal some jewelry from a store, and gets caught, and explains that it isn't her fault, and she can't help her self.

To end the film we go through a quick example of what the Devil has done bad within the film. Over all I feel this is one of Niles better releases, except for its moments of darkness, which I hope a brighter bulb will fix, and some of it being a bit washed out. The rarity of this film, and it being completely bizarre, are worth seeking it out.

This film when it was originally released in (1922) in Denmark, and was titled "Haxan", and was not surprisingly banned in a lot of theaters. It wasn't until the late 60's that it was reissued under the title" Witchcraft Through The Ages" in this country, and most of its inter-titles explaining what was going on were replaced by a narration done by William S. Burroughs. There is a nicely restored DVD by The Criterion Collection, that has both "Haxan", and "Witchcraft Through The Ages" I highly recommend seeking out the Dvd.

[ January 14, 2011, 03:32 PM: Message edited by: Bradford A Moore ]

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on January 12, 2011, 05:10 PM:

Thanks for the nice description but, what about the music selections after the first reel ?. Or was it all Bach? And, do be careful, it is Benjamin Christensen.

Posted by Bradford A Moore (Member # 426) on January 12, 2011, 08:05 PM:

Reel one worked so well with side one, that I flipped it for reel two. I used the same process for 3 and 4, but after a second viewing, I may choose something different. As for Christensen, I hadn't had my coffee yet, and my spelling has never been that great anyway. I hope to show this print in my film series next October for one of my Halloween showings. By then I will have the score worked out. That was just a trial run.

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on January 15, 2011, 03:57 PM:

Brad,

Thank you for the review. That's some bit of drama you went through getting that bid in!
There is such amazing imagery in this film. Christensen also directed the Lon Chaney film Mockery but I've never seen it.

Doug

Posted by Bradford A Moore (Member # 426) on January 16, 2011, 06:35 AM:

My friend in LA who helped me to buy Witchcraft Through The Ages, has a 16mm print of Mockery. I haven't seen it either, and maybe I will borrow it for the film series someday. I have heard it is one of the worst Chaney films, but he still shines through it.

Posted by Timothy Ramzyk (Member # 718) on October 06, 2012, 02:04 AM:

I had a pretty terrible Niles print I bought in the early eighties. Near the middle where people are conspiring to snare the elderly witch you could barely see what was going on the image was so severely washed out. Sadly, this was true also of my Niles prints of METROPOLIS and CALIGARI. I was too young and inexperienced to know how nice a silent film could look, so i bought these prints thinking it was just the age of the originals. Niles also took my money for a print of BLUEBEARD, and went under without ever sending me the film.

Oh well, live-& learn.

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