{"id":39519,"date":"2019-10-15T12:07:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T16:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=39519"},"modified":"2023-04-16T12:11:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T16:11:12","slug":"haxan-haxan-witchcraft-through-the-ages-1922-criterion-collection-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/15\/haxan-haxan-witchcraft-through-the-ages-1922-criterion-collection-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"H\u00e4xan (H\u00e4xan: Witchcraft Through the Ages) (1922): Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A hybrid of documentary and fiction, this silent film explores the history of witchcraft, demonology and satanism. It shows representations of evil in a variety of ancient and medieval artworks, offers vignettes illustrating a number of superstitious practices and presents a narrative about the persecution of a woman accused of witchcraft. The film ends by suggesting that the modern science of psychology offers important insight into the beliefs and practices of the past.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s bracing how beautiful \u201cH\u00e4xan\u201d is almost a hundred years after it was released. Watching it on its Criterion, it\u2019s a gorgeous movie, and one filled with a still relevant message to this day. Benjamin Christensen\u2019s horror hybrid documentary is a wonderful film that is deep down about the horror of humanity, and the cruelty we\u2019re capable of thanks to our ignorance. Allegedly Benjamin Christensen read about everything that he could about Witchcraft when entering in to \u201cH\u00e4xan\u201d and it shows big time. The horror aesthetic cleverly acts as a means of conveying the message about the awful treatment of women, ignorance of science and so much more.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d be hard pressed not to think this movie is also a celebration of witchcraft, as Christensen seems to have a true fascination and adoration for the religion. Whether you believe it or not, the concept of Witchcraft is an intriguing topic and he delves in to all of the more engaging rituals and whatnot. Everything from Sabbaths to the Devil, potions, and the concept of Witches riding by night are all present and rather thoughtfully explored. The scene of the Witches riding through the sky at night is a marvel, especially considering how much special effects in film were in its infancy.<\/p>\n

Director Christensen doesn\u2019t really criticize the subject matter, but he doesn\u2019t seem to be all to intent on proselytizing the audience. \u201cH\u00e4xan\u201d is a lot more about the understanding and the heinous fallout from failing to and or refusing to understand. The cinematography from Johan Ankerstjerne is abundantly gorgeous and he treats every scene like a work of art. The various colorful flourishes really punctuate the sense of dread or mania, and pays off in such a brilliant method. \u201cH\u00e4xan\u201d surely is a great horror film, and it\u2019s also a very important one.<\/p>\n

Featured in the new release from Criterion is a nine minutes Introduction from director Benjamin Christensen, who filmed this short introduction to H\u00e4xan in 1941, in Danish, with optional English subtitles. There\u2019s information about the recent score that film music specialist Gillian Anderson recorded with the Czech Film Orchestra in Prague in June 2001. It\u2019s in text format. There\u2019s the seventy seven minutes Witchcraft Through the Ages, an alternate version of H\u00e4xan which was released in 1968, that represents one of several cinematic collaborations between Antony Balch, Brion Gysin, and William S. Burroughs, who performed the voiceover narration of the film. Daniel Humair composed the jazz score.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the fifteen minutes program \u201cBibilioteque diabolique,\u201d with film scholar Casper Tybjerg, who focuses on some of the historical sources that Benjamin Christensen used while preparing H\u00e4xan. The program was produced for Criterion in 2011, with text description in English. There are five minutes of Outtakes, with footage that comes from a reel of test shots for various Benjamin Christensen films which was collected by cinematographer Johan Ankerstjerne. There\u2019s also a twenty one chapter commentary with film scholar Casper Tybjerg, who recorded this audio commentary for Criterion’s DVD release of H\u00e4xan in 2001. Finally this edition comes packed with a thirty four page illustrated Booklet featuring an essay by critic Chris Fujiwara, remarks on the score by Gillian Anderson, an essay by scholar Chlo\u00e9 Germaine Buckley, and technical credits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A hybrid of documentary and fiction, this silent film explores the history of witchcraft, demonology and satanism. It shows representations of evil in a variety of ancient and medieval artworks, offers vignettes illustrating a number of superstitious practices and presents a narrative about the persecution of a woman accused of witchcraft. The film ends by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,12],"tags":[64,241,292,469,477,834,897,943,1087,1195,1196],"class_list":["post-39519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-criterion","tag-documentary","tag-history","tag-horror","tag-religion","tag-satanic","tag-silent","tag-thriller","tag-witchcraft","tag-witches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39521,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39519\/revisions\/39521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}